Close co-operation between authorities and utilities ‘averted disaster’

30 July 2008
 
Changing both the content of street works notices and the method for sending notices in April ‘was less than a good idea’, according to senior officers.

Peter Goode, of the Highways Authorities and Utilities Committee, told LocalGov's sister publication Surveyor there seemed to be agreement among HAUC UK members on this, ‘with hindsight’.

He was speaking as councils and utilities continue, three months on, to have difficulties in sending and receiving notices. But Goode said that while the introduction of the new noticing system ‘was not smooth’, the fact that there had been ‘co-operation and pragmatism at the coal face’ had averted disaster.

‘We still get utilities sending notices successfully for many days, only to find that one day’s worth have failed somewhere in that period, which means we have to work together to enable the world to keep moving in a practical way without mayhem’.

There had been claims from one software developer that, three months on, local authorities were still unable to receive notices – 25 out of 36 councils one utility was working with.

Goode said there were ‘numerous bugs and anomalies’, in many cases, ‘unique to individual combinations of organisations and systems’.

He said: ‘It seems that developer A and developer B can communicate successfully in some instances, but not always in others.

‘Some developers cannot communicate between organisations both using their system.’

Bob Donaldson, president of the Technical Advisers’ Group, agreed with Goode that changing the noticing regulations and moving to ETON 4 method of transmitting notices at the same time had not been wise, given ‘we’ve three main developers supplying 100-odd authorities’.

‘We hope that lessons will be learned. There needs to be a sensible lead-in time – a lead-in time that everybody has agreed to.’

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