Rayleigh and Wickford MP, Mark Francois, recently held a meeting in his Westminster office with James Harrison, London Network Director of Cadent Gas and Alice Offley, Head of External Affairs, in order to discuss both their ongoing projects and a list of their planned roadworks, in his constituency, which Mark has described as “unacceptable.”
During the meeting, Mark explained that his constituents are fed up with the significant delays and constant digging up of roads by utility and other companies, including Cadent Gas. One notorious example of this has been in Hockley, which has recently been dubbed “Blockley” due to the incessant number of roadworks and disruption (that were caused mainly by City Fibre, in seeking to install new Gigabit capable broadband.
Alongside this, Mark has also requested a meeting with Cadents’ Chief Executive, Steve Fraser, in order to express these strong concerns to him in person; whilst also outlining his plans to also raise these issues again in Parliament.
Commenting after the meeting, Mark said:
“The cumulative effect of these planned works by Cadent on my constituents is unacceptable. I hope to be raising these issues in Parliament in the near future, in line with my previous Ten-Minute Rule Bill, nicknamed, the ‘Can the Cones’ Bill.
For too long, there has been far too cosy a relationship between the granting of permits by Highways Authorities and utility/ fibre companies- and I will continue to press for stronger legislation on this matter, for the benefit of my constituents."
