Mark Francois MP has kept up the pressure on contractors North London Gas Alliance regarding their performance over road works in Rayleigh. Mark held a meeting in his Westminster office with Mr Steve Edwards, the construction engineer in charge of the project and some of his colleagues to discuss the difficulties being caused to his constituents by the time the work is taking. During the meeting, which lasted around an hour, Mark raised issues about the number of workmen committed to the project, the apparent lack of work being done at weekends and the quality of some of the subsequent resurfacing, particularly in the area of Down Hall road.
Mark stressed that while people reluctantly accepted the need for gas pipes to be replaced, traffic in Rayleigh is often congested at the best of times and the way the work is being carried out is making a difficult situation worse. These issues will remain important as the work moves on to Rayleigh high street and also the high road, stretching from the town centre out to the A127 at the Rayleigh Weir. Mr Edwards explained that this work, which will be conducted in phases, is likely to carry on into next spring, while the final stretch leading out of town to the A127 is completed. Following this, the company are then planning to undertake work in Benfleet, before eventually moving on to Southend (where traffic congestion could potentially be even greater).
Speaking following the meeting, Mark Francois said:
""I appreciate that the contractors have a job to do but my constituents also have to get on with their lives in the middle of it and I tried to communicate to the company some of the frustration which they are creating among the people who live in and around Rayleigh itself. I have pressed the company to try and carry out their future work with a greater sense of urgency, including at the weekends and to make sure they put sufficient people on the job to get it done as quickly as practically possible. At our meeting the company agreed that Down Hall road will need to be resurfaced, which they hope will take a couple of weekends at most and which they hope to accomplish later this year. For my part I have said that I would keep in touch with the company and will probably visit their engineers in action in the autumn to monitor how their work is progressing.""
