Get back and sort it!

UTILITY companies have been ordered to re-do road resurfacing after digging up Kirklees roads.

Kirklees Council can tell make companies re-do work if they are unsatisfied with the job done.

And the council has done just that - 316 times in the last year.

Figures released to the Examiner show that in 2015 there were 189 jobs where Kirklees Council notified utility companies of the need to re-do reinstatement work.

In 2016 there were 316 jobs where Kirklees Council notified utility companies of the need to re-do reinstatement work.

Kirklees told us: “The increase in 2016 is mostly as a result of an increase in the number of utility works, which related mainly to an increase in broadband installation and upgrade.

“In 2015 there were 10,210 new utility jobs reinstated; in 2016 there were 11,187 new utility jobs reinstated.”

A list of the companies behind ‘defective’ work includes BT, Northern Powergrid (Yorkshire) Yorkshire Water, Virgin Media, Northern Gas Networks, West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive, Falcrum Pipelines Ltd, T-Mobile and CityFibre.

Locations include key routes in and around Huddersfield, such as Leeds Road (Northern Powergrid); Chapel Hill (Virgin Media) and St Andrew’s Road (Yorkshire Water).

In a blog post, Kirklees leader Clr David Sheard said the authority was filling in more potholes than the public had requested, but utility companies were a problem.

The blog said: “We have had 17,443 pot holes reported to us. At the same time we have repaired 23,744.

“The consistency of the numbers accurately display the fact that we are only holding our own, this is reflected nationally as funding for highways has been cut to the bone.

“This is at the same time as central government take a massive amount from drivers from fuel tax, VAT, Insurance Tax and Road Tax. If a small percentage of what is collected from drivers locally was put back into the roads, we could start to get on top of the problem.

“A problem that is not helped in the current year by the increase in holes dug by the utilities.”

The Examiner reported earlier this week that Kirklees was testing new ways of repairing potholes more efficiently to find a long-term solution.

Workers were also being more proactive – rather than reactive – in maintaining and improving road surfaces.