A delay in the completion of repairs to a water pipe and electricity cable in Gedling village has left residents fuming.…
Severn Trent Water began making repairs to a water pipe on Lambley Lane after it burst last month. The road has been closed since mid-March at the junction with Jessops Lane to allow work to take place, causing long diversions for those trying to gain access to the village.
Since the leak, water continues to spill out onto Jessops Lane before flowing down into the local drainage system.
Residents are now growing angry over the length of time repairs are taking and also the lack of manpower being allocated to the job.
Local resident Philip Oddie contacted Gedling Eye about the issue earlier this week.
He said: “Residents support and understand the need for the repair and also appreciate the size of the job being undertaken, but I’m frustrated that Severn Trent seem to be putting so few staff into the repair which, we believe, has resulted in severe delays in getting the pipe repaired and the road reopened.”
Mr Oddie said he visited the site on Tuesday (April 10) and was shocked to discover only two workers were undertaking repairs.
Now, having suffered the inconvenience of this road closure for the last month, local residents have now had a second utilities company, Western Power, starting additional road works on Main Road to repair an urgent ‘LV cable fault’.
Mr Oddie said that the company arrived on Monday (9) dug a small hole in the pavement and installed temporary traffic lights, using cones to reduce the width of the road to a single carriageway.
He said: “This has caused significant disruption to motorists, with long queues forming during peak periods.
“whilst residents recognise the need for urgent repairs, it is frustrating to find that Western Power have not returned to the site since the first day. It appears that they have dug a hole, placed traffic lights and abandoned the work for four days’.
He added: “We believe that utility companies must be required to complete road works as a priority and this does not appear to be the case in Gedling. Surely, the objective must be to reduce public disruption to the absolute minimum by ensuring the work is completed as quickly as possible.”
Gedling Eye contacted Western Power for a response.
Their spokesman said: “We did carry out works on the Monday and throughout the night to repair an underground cable fault in the area. The repair was complete on Monday night. The remaining works required one of our contractors to reinstate the surface and we have been assured that this work will be done and completed by the end of the day today.
He added: “We’re sorry for any inconvenience that has been caused to residents.”
A spokesman for Severn Trent Water told Gedling Eye: “We’re busy working to fix a burst pipe on Jessops Lane, Gedling. It’s one of our biggest pipes at 27 inches diameter, and as you can imagine, it supplies an awful lot of people in the area with water.
“We understand the frustration that local people may be feeling about our work, in that it’s taking a long time and it may look like not a lot is happening. But we need to make sure that we can do the work in such a way that means we don’t cut off water supplies to the thousands customers supplied by the pipe.
“This means that we need specialist equipment and specially manufactured parts. We’ve had to dig down to the pipe to take exact measurements to have those parts made, so now there is an open hole and less activity on site while we wait for those parts to be made.
They added: “Next week we’ll be doing some work on another pipe in the area that we also need to use while we do the repair on Jessops Lane, and we’ll also be installing the new specially made parts. The repair can then start in earnest.
“We’re really sorry for any inconvenience that this emergency work may be causing – we promise that we’re doing everything we can to get the pipe repaired quickly and everything back to normal as soon as we can. But we really need to make sure our customers still have a water supply while we do it, and that is making a difficult job that bit more tricky.
“We’re currently aiming for all work to be complete by the end of April.”
