Utility firms botch one in eight road repairs first time around

Published on Monday 30 March 2009 09:57

ONE in eight road repairs carried out by utility firms in Edinburgh is botched and needs to be redone, it emerged today.

Figures released to the Evening News show that Scottish Water is one of the worst offenders, failing to properly reinstate almost a fifth of all its sites.

Council officials surveyed 1000 sets of works belonging to major firms, and found 130 failed to meet the necessary standards.

Download our chart and compare the worst offenders

The latest figures represent an improvement from the previous year, when 20 per cent failed the council's checks.

Bruce Young, of the Association of British Drivers, said motorists were sick and tired of the same stretches of roads being repeatedly dug up.

He said: "I think these figures are frankly appalling. I can understand it happening a few times, but a figure of one in eight is nowhere near an acceptable rate.

"There's a lack of local authority inspectors to sign off these sorts of works. Cutting back on them is a saving that's counterproductive in my opinion."

The council said the sites surveyed provided a "weighted sample" of the approximately 10,000 road "openings" in the city every year, meaning the most checks were done on Scottish Water, Scotia Gas Networks and Scottish-Power.

Of the 360 that belonged to Scottish Water, around 17 per cent needed to be redone, higher than any other company apart for telecoms firms Thus and Cable and Wireless, which both carried out a relatively low number of jobs.

BT and Scotia Gas Networks were the next worst offenders after the water firm, failing 16 per cent and 12 per cent respectively.

A spokesman for Scottish Water said: "We carry out coring exercises, where we check the integrity of our work, on an ongoing basis.

We have also set up a road mission steering group to promote issues such as the quality of road reinstatements."

Last month it emerged that utility firms had been handed almost 120 separate fines by the council for delays to work on Edinburgh's roads in just three months.

However, the power to fine companies for poor reinstatement lies with Scotland's roadworks commissioner, not the council.

Councillor Robert Aldridge, the city's environment convener, said: "While it is encouraging that the number of reinstatement failures are decreasing year-on-year, there is clearly still room for improvement and the council will continue to put pressure on the utility companies to make this happen."

Last week it emerged that Scotia Gas Networks had been told to return to resurface part of Queensferry Road after failing to reinstate it to the council's standards. The company said the work would be carried out at night to minimise disruption.