THE county councillor responsible for highways has slammed a contractor for its 'shoddy' roadworks, and threatened to fine them if work is not completed on time.

Councillor Alan Amos has realised an assertive statement threatening that Worcestershire County Council could be forced to take action against Cadent for its "incompetent" gas works in Bromwich Road, St John's.

In response, the contractor has apologised for the inconvenience of the work, and stresses it hopes the work will be completed early next week - ahead of schedule.

Cllr Amos said one-way traffic lights were put up in the road on Monday, August 7, but claimed nobody turned up to do any work for three days, with hundreds of motorists needlessly being delayed in traffic queues.

Cllr Amos said: "A few weeks before, they did some other unsatisfactory work further along the very same road.

"On another occasion, in Newtown Road, no gang turned up for work. Another problem has been their failure to manually control traffic lights, as per their contract.

"On the Bromwich Road issue, the county council has powers under section 74 to impose penalty fines.

"The county council can also stop granting permits, and stop early starts and extensions.

"Permits for roadworks can also be revoked.

"We have made it clear that in this particular case, the council will not grant any extension beyond the original agreed date of August 28 and if they carry on beyond then they will be fined £5,000 per day for the first three days, and £10,000 per day thereafter."

Cllr Amos said he had made the statement as the "public have had enough of these companies", slamming their unnecessary and inconsiderate working practices.

"I made it abundantly clear from the minute I took over this cabinet role, that my principal job was to keep traffic and people moving and that there would be zero tolerance of shoddy roadworks," he said.

"The only thing that these people understand is money so I have instructed officers always to impose the maximum financial penalties possible under the law, and not to grant any extensions when the contractors themselves are responsible for any delays."

A Cadent spokesman said: "Cadent is carrying out essential work to upgrade Worcester’s gas network so local people can enjoy safe, reliable gas supplies for decades to come.

"We always aim to carry out our work to the highest standards, to complete it on time and to minimise disruption to the community.

“We are sorry that work did not start on August 7 as originally planned. However, staff were working from August 8 onwards.

"Temporary traffic lights were originally manually controlled at peak times, as requested by the county council. We then extended this to 12 hours a day, from 7am to 7pm.

“We are sorry for any inconvenience caused by our work and we thank local people for bearing with us. We expect to complete these works by early next week, ahead of schedule.

“We hold regular meetings with the county council, one of which is being held later this week. We welcome the opportunity to discuss this project further with them.”