Crackdown on contractors plea

BOROUGH Council chiefs have been urged to improve the way they monitor contractors who carry out work on their behalf in Culcheth and Glazebury.
Parish councillor Matt Smith (pictured) has made the call after receiving complaints from residents of the Holcroft Lane and Warrington Road areas about the poor standard of work by contractors carrying out hedgerow maintainance.
He said: “The test applied by the council should not simply be about whether a job has been done – it should be about whether it has been done well.
“In the Holcroft Lane and Warrington Road area, road signs have been left obscured by overhanging brambles and hedgerows. Elsewhere, debris from the hedges have been left littered all over the
footpaths, making it very difficult for people who walk to school that way.
“In my view, when things like this are left, the council should not call this a satisfactory job. That is why I have asked the chief executive to ensure that a better process of monitoring contractors is put into place.
“A ‘checkback’ system should be implemented, so that when works are not carried out to a good standard, the council should withhold full payment. If issues like the ones described on Holcroft Lane and
Warrington Road arise, and are reported, this results in the council having to send additional staff to the same location to ‘mop up’.
“In the long run, this is costing more and it is a cost which the public purse should not have to bear.”