Cracking down on utility company roadworks

When utility company roadworks overrun, it’s motorists who pay the price with congestion, detours and longer journeys.

This is why I’ve announced a plan to crack down on works by utility companies overrunning. We are consulting on plans to toughen fines for utility companies if they overrun and increase the penalties for operating without a licence. Proposals include using money the utility companies pay councils to “block off” the streets, and putting it into resurfacing and improving local roads.

The result? We could generate £100 million extra each year to resurface roads and tackle potholes left behind by utility companies, while helping tackle congestion, cutting down journey times and make driving a bit easier.

This is part of the first series of measures delivered from the Government’s Plan for Drivers, a 30-point plan to support freedom to use your cars, curb unnecessary enforcement and back drivers.

This is just the latest boost for your readers who rely on our roads, who will also see the biggest ever funding increase of £8.3 billion to resurface local roads in England – improving the everyday journeys that so many people rely on.

Guy Opperman MP, Minister for Roads and Local Transport

In laypersons’ terms, please

Perhaps the shameless Lib Dems in charge of Wokingham Borough Council could explain something to residents in simple laypersons’ terms.

The Wokingham Borough Council finance czar, Lib Dem Councillor Imogen Shepherd-DuBey, states in Wokingham.Today, Letters, Thursday, January 18, that “Wokingham Borough Council has to find

£17.3 million just to stand still, next year. The current government has provided us with only £667,000 of additional funding towards that need.”

On page 4 of the same issue, it was reported that Philip Meadowcroft was planning to ask about £75 million worth of loans that WBC had made to other local authorities during 2023.

The explanations required of Finance Czar, Cllr Shepherd-DuBey, WBC Leader, Lib Dem Cllr Stephen Conway and Windy Wannabe Lib

Dem Parliamentary Candidate for Wokingham, Clive Jones are these:

If WBC has such a large financial shortfall, why did the Lib Dem-run WBC lend £75 million in 2023 to other local authorities when the Lib Dems continually claim that WBC is so short of funds? Why was the money lent not kept in a contingency fund earning interest?

These funds were, after all, deliberately and knowingly lent out.

Could it be that a raw sewage of disinformation is being pumped out by the Lib Dems over WBC finances? How can Lib Dem-run WBC claim to be so financially hard up that it causes misery by raising car parking charges by an extortionate amount whilst at the same time lending out millions of pounds they claim are so desperately needed for Wokingham Borough? None of it seems to add up.

Residents need to be able to follow