Thames Water fine for chaos is 'an insult' says councillor

On Tuesday morning there was gridlock across the town, and on routes coming into the town centre after the utility company's night-time work schedule continued into the rush hour.

The utility company had agreed its workers would reopen the road by 5am, but there were significant delays, and it remained closed for the morning.

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Oxfordshire County Council, the highways authority, has confirmed that Thames Water has been fined £80 following the delay.

A spokesman for the county council said: "I can confirm that Thames Water was fined £80 for a breach of permit conditions.

"These fine limits are set by the Department for Transport."

Thames Water also confirmed it had been fined £80.

Nathan Ley, county councillor for Abingdon North, described the size of the fine as "an insult".

He added: "I'm grateful to council officers who rectified the situation on Tuesday.

"However, the size of the fine is clearly an insult to all of us held up, and the Department for Transport and central government should allow much greater fines to be imposed.

"Thames Water treated the residents of Abingdon with contempt and at the moment there's little incentive to stop them doing it again."

Residents told on Facebook how they missed appointments at work as a result of the delays. Some pupils were late for school.

Mr Ley added on Facebook: "I am still sorry for everyone who got stuck in it as their fine won’t make up your loss of earnings or time.

"A personal lesson learned: check google maps for traffic every morning before heading out.

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"The county council has recently consulted on extra powers from government to charge more money when utility companies dig up major routes (‘lane rental’).

"That should be coming up for a decision shortly and I have no doubt will go through. But again, no consolation for people this week."

A Thames Water spokesman said: "We are sorry for delays in reopening Stert Street in Abingdon earlier this week.

"Our engineers began work in the evening of Monday 22 January to install a new connection to our clean water pipes.

“This was completed overnight, however a delay with the reinstatement led to the road remaining closed longer than expected and impacting motorists the following morning. The road was reopened on Tuesday in the afternoon.

"We apologise for the impact on the local community and will continue to liaise with the local authority on this matter."

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About the author 

Andy is the Trade and Tourism reporter for the Oxford Mail and you can sign up to his newsletters for free here. 

He joined the team more than 20 years ago and he covers community news across Oxfordshire.

His Trade and Tourism newsletter is released every Saturday morning. 

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