Virgin Media cable laying in Wrexham

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  • #140027

    jimbow
    Participant

    During the summer months fibre optic cables were installed in and around Garden Village on behalf of Wrexham Council and Virgin Media.
    Unfortunately, it has been found out the cables were not laid at the correct depth.
    In a letter from Virgin Media it says the work has not been carried out to the high standards of both Wrexham Council and Virgin Media.
    This week work has started on ripping up all the pavements, causing numerous problems to residents.
    An e mail to our local councillor asking for a disturbance allowance for residents has been passed on by him to the Council.
    How on earth has the Roads Inspectors in the Council allowed this mistake to have happened?

    #140038

    Matt
    Participant

    Facepunch

    #140052

    bubble
    Participant

    I honestly believe it’s because our councillors are a bunch of amateurs. It’s our own fault for electing them, but I don’t feel we had much of a choice. Do we even know whether the spin they gave us about themselves when canvassing was accurate? Does anyone do any fact checking?
    I feel that Wrexham council basically aspires to mediocrity – and still fails to attain it.

    #140053

    maxman
    Participant

    [quote quote=140052]I honestly believe it’s because our councillors are a bunch of amateurs. It’s our own fault for electing them, but I don’t feel we had much of a choice. Do we even know whether the spin they gave us about themselves when canvassing was accurate? Does anyone do any fact checking?
    I feel that Wrexham council basically aspires to mediocrity – and still fails to attain it.[/quote]
    The councillors are not responsible for checking work carried out by contractors ,that is the responsibility of various council employees .

    #140068

    Matt
    Participant

    Surely it’s the councillors responsibility to ensure sufficient due diligence processes are drawn up and stringently applied by said various council employees when a) selecting competent contractors and b) ensuring any works carried out by contractors is carried out on a i) value for money for the ratepayer basis – e.g. no additional cost burden on the public purse due to mistakes and a ii) minimal disruption to the operation of key highways – works should take no longer than necessary (i.e. don’t screw it up in the first place) – fines should be sought for a breach of either of these 2 points to compensate the county.

    By suggesting withdrawn responsibility from the elected body of councillors we’d be suggesting it’s pointless to even have anyone voted in to run the area and that the council operations themselves are a fractured anarchy not answerable to the councillors or by proxy the electorate.

    Accountability is 100% necessary at all times in local government. If mistakes are allowed to happen here, what happens if more serious mistakes are made elsewhere, such as with the elderly, young or vulnerable within the social remit of the council. Should serious mistakes happen there, would the Exec board be blameless?

    #140074

    jimbow
    Participant

    I am still awaiting a reply to my e mail that was forwarded on to the Council from the local counsellor. However, the present contractors are telling me the previous contractor went bust after having been paid for the job. I do not know how true this is. The present job I am told will take a week to complete. There must be up to 15 workmen on site. Quite a hefty bill involved for what seems a schoolboy error.

    #140076

    MP1953
    Participant

    [quote quote=140074]I am still awaiting a reply to my e mail that was forwarded on to the Council from the local counsellor. However, the present contractors are telling me the previous contractor went bust after having been paid for the job. I do not know how true this is. The present job I am told will take a week to complete. There must be up to 15 workmen on site. Quite a hefty bill involved for what seems a schoolboy error.[/quote]

    Yes I got the same reply, apparently the cables were supposed to be 300mm deep but were put at just 100mm

    As already stated surly Wrexham Council must still have clerk of the works (they used to be called) to check that the work is being done to spec as it goes along, of course Virgin Media also should have been checking to make sure the job was being done to the required standard, what a C*** Up !

    #140077

    Matt
    Participant

    Unbelievable, it’s like an episode of Cowboy Builders, they’ll be sending in Dom Littlewood next to the bust contractors office with a concerned/stern looking face and an excessive stack of printed pieces of paper that nobody bothers to check under the covering sheet to see if it is just blank paper.

    #140090

    Liz Jackson
    Participant

    How did they find the mistake — was it a Council ‘Clerk of Works’ or the contractors owns inspection system that dug up a piece of the pavement?
    I cant see how the previous work that took weeks to be done will now only take a week — surely the contractor will have to dig them down not only to the cable level but deeper– something not stacking up with this information.

    Whi will now be responsible for the work after the trenches have settled and the pavement needs reinstating again- Virgin or the contractor or Wrexham ratepayers because the Council cannot have a full contract in place to cover reinstatement and remedial works.

    #140103

    jimbow
    Participant

    Liz,
    Just for information it will only take a week to do Ffordd Estyn down one side, not the whole of Garden Village. The pavement is dug up and the trench made deeper. The cable is then replaced and covered with a layer of concrete. The day following the concrete,a layer of asphalt is laid on top, job done.
    A workman told me they have an instrument that gives a signal as to the depth of the cable. Who found the mistake I do not know.

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