I have received a response from Central Bedfordshire Highways, saying that Steve Thomas (who I believe to be Senior Engineer, Central Bedfordshire Council), does not usually deal with these types of matters, that is why he was not consulted.
Highways have also emailed Biggleswade Town Council to ensure all of their staff are aware that maintenance at this area is managed by Mr Thomas, so any future enquiries can be directed to the correct office.
When I asked the Biggleswade Town Council, Town Clerk, in February 2011, "who is responsible for repairing the railings" all I was told was" The Town Council are not going to repair or replace the railings as they do not belong to the Town Council". It appears that the Town Clerk knew all along that Steve Thomas was the person to contact, but did not think to tell anyone.
Mr Thomas is to make enquiries into the best course of action at this location.
_____________________________________In the blog of 24th February 2011, I related the dispute between Biggleswade Town Town and Central Bedfordshire Highways about who was responsible for the repairs.
http://biggleswadeonline.blogspot.com/2011/02/lets-play-pass-parcel.html
After nearly 5 months of:
1. I can understand your frustration regarding the two organisations not taking responsibility. I have raised the issue with the Planners that installed them as part of the regeneration scheme. I am confident that a resolution will soon be achieved.
2. I chasing that one, just waiting a response.
3. I am really sorry you have not received a reply. I have forwarded the email to our Economic & Physical Regeneration team to reply as a matter of urgency.
On the 19th June I made a formal complaint. The response time is two working days. So after five working days I asked for a response.
The response was:
Please accept our apologies for the delay in responding to your email of 19th June.
The barriers were installed at the request of Biggleswade Town Council many years ago and are not barriers that the Highways would install or maintain as they have been installed as a decorative feature.
The barriers that Highways can install are the standard safety barriers which would look very out of place. As Biggleswade Town Council requested these be installed it is their responsibility to pay for a replacement barrier of the same style if they wish to do so.
We appreciate that this matter has been going back and forth a number of months however the Highways Team do not have funds available to replace decorative barriers that they have no responsibility for.
We have copied this email to the Town Council so that they can make the necessary arrangements for repairs to be made.
I have now received a copy of an email from the Biggleswade Town Clerk to Highways asking that in future they do some background checking before sending out responses of this nature and copying the email to Steve Thomas of Central Bedfordshire Council asking that he contact Highways and myself to appraise us of ownership of the barriers.
Back to square one, do not pass Go and do not collect 200 pounds.
I have written to Highways and copied it to the Town Clerk and Steve Thomas:
So where does this leave the report I made in February 2011 and the recent formal complaint I made about this issue not being resolved after nearly 5 months.
In a conversation with Mark MacDonald (Area Steward) about another issue these barriers were mentioned and he gave me the impression he would get the job but did not know where the original barriers had been procured from, so would not be able to match them.
Watch this space!!!!!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment