Council's new powers over holes in the road

WARRINGTON has been given more powers to control when utility companies can dig up roads.
This has come to light following a question asked by Liberal Democrat leader Cllr Ian Marks at a recent councilmeeting.
Cllr Marks (pictured) said: “In the autumn of 2013 I pointed out that some councils had been given extra powers by the Transport Secretary to decide when utility companies dig up local roads.
“Under these powers, the companies would have to request permits to carry out repairs rather than just inform the council that work would be undertaken.
“I was told the council would be applying for extra powers but it would take until the end of 2014 to come about.
“As December had arrived, I asked for a progress report. I was very pleased to hear Warrington had been granted these extra powers in October and the new regime would be operational in February.
“The public gets rightly annoyed when they see a lack of joined up thinking between councils and utility companies with roads being dug up soon after re-surfacing.
“We had a classic case in Lymm recently. BT dug up part of the A56 just a few weeks after it had been resurfaced to install broadband.
“The re-surfacing itself had been delayed many weeks until United Utilities had carried out a sewer repair. Let’s hope the new powers will enable an end of this kind of nonsense and enable work to be better co-ordinated.”