Westmorland and Furness Council have agreed to write to the Minister for Future Roads to request a meeting to discuss being granted more powers to tackle inefficient management and bad coordination of street works.
The council met on November 27 to approve the motion, which was put forward by Cllr Peter Thornton, cabinet member for highways, and seconded by Cllr Rupert Audland.
The motion was amended during the meeting to explicitly mention both rural and urban areas rather than just rural, with special mention given to the conditions in Barrow.
Before the motion was discussed, Cllr Frank Cassidy questioned Cllr Thornton on the ‘nightmarish driving conditions’ Barrow motorists have faced due to the ‘substantial roadworks’ in the town.
Cllr Thornton said: “I fully appreciate your points.”
He continued: “Would it be better if the works were staggered? Yes it would”.
The cabinet member went on to say that due to the number of works, it is ‘inevitable’ that there would be some overlap.
He said: “I can only apologise to residents and businesses.”
Cllr Thornton continued: “We do and try to keep disruption to a minimum.”
During the motion, the councillor said there is an ‘enormous amount of issues they have to deal with’.
Although, regarding the street works in the county, he said: “This is a symptom of investment and success [although] it may not seem it when you’re sat in your car.”
An example he gave was the roll out of fibre broadband across the county.
However, he did acknowledge problems faced by residents.
Addressing the council, he said: “All too often the signage is misleading, sometimes its missing and sometimes it’s in the wrong place.”
He continued: “Sometimes the highway is closed after it’s clearly finished”.
Cllr Thornton said the council’s compliance officers ‘just don’t have enough power’ to compel construction work to a higher standard.
“There should be an incentive to make utilities work quicker,” he added.
Cllr Audland said: “It was fairly obvious we need a change.”
While the motion enjoyed immense support in council, some members of the Conservative Group, who supported the motion, pointed out the necessity to detail exactly which powers are being asked for in the letter to the minister.
Before voting, Cllr Thornton said: “We need to tilt the balance from the utilities towards the council.”
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