Heather is calling on the council to urgently overhaul the way the Council manages its road contractors after one job saw major disruption in the West of the County with residents subjected to abusing and sexist language by workmen.
Heather said “Once again the Council’s roads contractors RINGWAY have excelled themselves. It was a relatively straightforward project to resurface the Marton to Brockton Road B4386.
“However they managed to:
1. Start at a snail’s pace only moving the heavy plant on to the stretch of road after it had been closed for several days. They easily could have used traffic lights to keep the road open during this period.
2. Caused mayhem by diverting heavy traffic via narrow roads to Meadowtown causing a lot of damage in the process.
3. Didn’t mark ramps in the ironwork properly causing damage to cars and buses.
4. Failed to listen to officers and myself on diversions and other issues.
5. Repeatedly tried to extend the road closure times without obtaining legal permission to do so.
6 Finished a week late!
7. Repeatedly used abusive language to the public.
“I for one was very glad to hear that they and the Council will be parting company in 2018. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve complained about their poor workmanship and unreliability. I only hope that the Council acquires the expertise to draw up a functional contract with the new Contractor. This one has been far from perfect.
SEXIST
“What made this work particularly unpleasant was the rudeness and foul language of many of the contractors employees when dealing with the public. Expletives were regularly used, even in front of children, and one resident was told she was ‘only a woman’ when she got lost trying to get around the poorly signed diversion.”
Heather is now seeking and urgent meeting with Highways Officers to seek effective ways of managing such projects in future.
She is also asking people who have suffered any damage to your vehicle as a result of these works to contact her or claim from the Insurance Claims Department of the Council directly.
Heather concluded “I think that the key issue that needs to be addressed here is managing the over complex nature of projects like this. There were 4 or 5 contractors or subcontractors involved in this project, many of whom were just not listening to Council Officers and just acting as they pleased!
Heather Kidd has written to Mr Hunt inviting him to come and see for himself the impact this will have not only in Shropshire but throughout rural England.