By Carmelo Garcia – Local Democracy Reporter
The threat of legal action over the dire state of Cheltenham’s town centre appears to have prompted action to remove some of the “tarmac cow pats” which litter the high street.
The town’s Civic Society begun legal action last month against Gloucestershire County Council (GCC) over the “appalling” condition the spa town centre’s roads and pavements are in.
The civic society say they have been campaigning to improve the state of the roads for more than five years.
And now County Highways say they have taken action to raise the standards of utility company roadworks in Cheltenham.
When utility companies complete work on paved streets they often make the area safe with temporary repairs that do not match the paving stones of the street and cause an eyesore.
They are legally allowed a period of up to six months to fix this and complete permanent repairs – however they are meant to remedy the fault at the earliest opportunity.
The council claims it is bringing in new measures to speed up this process, to protect the special character of the county’s streets.
It’s already the utility company’s responsibility to have appropriate plans in place to put things right and the council can’t refuse emergency works such as water leaks or gas repairs, which demand faster action.
However, in future, any planned works in city or town centres with specialist paving will not be permitted to start until the contractor has shown they have the correct paving slabs in store.
To make a positive start to the new approach, this week Gloucestershire Highways said they will start work in Cheltenham town centre to replace older temporary repairs with matching paving stones, to maintain the original style of the pavements.
Highways cabinet member Dom Morris (C, Fairford and Lechlade) said: “This is one of many steps we’re taking as part of our Highways Transformation Programme to crack down on utility companies who cause disruption on our roads.
“We are raising standards to protect our streets and create better journeys for everyone in Gloucestershire.”
Andrew Booton, chairman of the Civic Society, said the group welcomes the council’s intention to tighten its procedures around reinstatement of highways after utility companies dig them up.
“However, it is no coincidence that GCC has made this announcement after CCS served a section 56 notice on them for the appalling state of our town centre highways and cited the terrible ‘tarmac cowpats’ and street scars from inadequate reinstatements,” he said.
“But it is also disappointing that even GCC’s own announcement on the matter is incorrect.
“Section 70 of the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991 requires reinstatements to be done as soon as reasonably practicable and, in any event, within six months.
“That is not the same as saying they have six months to do the work. It is this slack interpretation of the law and the professional guidance that enables utility companies to get away with leaving our town in a mess.
“And it should not take the threat of legal action by a community organisation to persuade the Council to do its job.
“While the council talks about ‘protecting the special character of the county’s streets’, GCC and its contractors alone are responsible for the terrible mess of broken York stone and tarmac cowpats on the Promenade.
“That mess has nothing to do with utility companies. So we expect GCC to apply their new-found diligence to their own works too.
“Only by applying a consistent and ruthless approach to street works management and contractor oversight will GCC deter future transgressions and bring our town centre up to a standard the public expects.
“This is an overdue admission of fault and negligence, but it’s a step in the right direction. We will be monitoring progress in the coming months.”
The County Council previously said in September that they were shocked by the Civic Society’s “dramatic action”.
They said at the time that town centre aesthetics are very important to them and Cheltenham Borough Council.
They also said they were surprised about the legal action the Civic Society is taking as “they had not provided any evidence that the council is failing in its legal duty to continue to keep the network safe”.
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