‘Smart Motorway’ Roll-Out Suspended
Work on motorways that are missing the customary hard shoulder will be suspended, the government has confirmed. The families of people killed on smart motorways are said to have welcomed a Government decision to pause their rollout over safety concerns (Express). ‘The government’s decision comes in light of a House of Commons Transport Select Committee report, […]
National Highways Blame Insurers for Process Failure
First it was Kier Highways claiming that their 10/2015 profiteering process was agreed with insurers. One company they named denied any knowledge of such an arrangement. Then, 06/2019, having launched their ‘NSoRC’ (National Schedule of Repair Costs), the process failed and was abandoned 31/10/2019. The NSoRC was to be it; “In a sense it’s not […]
Birmingham City Council Contradictions
Birmingham City Council (BCC) and their road fiasco continues after the termination of Amey’s contract and appointment of Kier Highways (Kier). Concerns about BCC and Kier’s conduct when billing for damage-repairs to highways stem from an FoIA response in 2020; the response said Kier were not using their high schedule of rates to bill Third Parties, […]
Highways Authority Defies the ICO Refusing to Release Information
National Highways has refused to comply with the ICO’s Decision Notice and is withholding Third Party charging information they were directed to disclose, appealing the ICO’s decision such that, in the meantime, they are not required to disclose what is held by their contractor. For years, the Authority failed those they were to serve and […]
Highways England Rewarding Complacency … at your expense!
Leakage – Highways England (HE) / National Highways (NH) Payment of Costs Not Required &/or Not Necessarily Incurred We have, over the years, raised a number of issues with the Authority about claims leakage. That they rubber-stamp contractor repair invoices for payment will obviously lead to problems. The Authority believes it is ‘too expensive to […]
National Highways – Inflating Costs to Profit?
In 2019, National Highways, then Highways England, reported that, with regard to recovery of repair costs following damage to the Strategic Road Network (SRN) by Third Party drivers, they were recovering just £1 in every £5. Could this have anything to do with the fact that their contractors were effectively writing their own work orders, […]
Altered Images – Tampering With Photographic Evidence
This post is unrelated to an early 1980’s Scottish new wave/post-punk band, fronted by singer Clare Grogan. When a Highways England contractor repairs damage, for example to a barrier, usually they take photographs of the pre-repair state and of the completed restoration (post-repair). But are the images accurate, for the incident subject of the claim or […]
National Highways (Highways England) & DfT’s Increasing legal Spend
‘A series of freedom of Information (FOI) requests submitted to government departments and arm’s length government bodies has revealed that spending on legal fees has increased faster within the Department for Transport (DfT) and National Highways (Highways England) than any other organisation contacted’, source – New Civil Engineer. National Highways general counsel Tim Reardon* is […]
Highways England Ordered to Release Claims Information
‘Kier holds the requested information on Highways England’s behalf and therefore for the purposes of FOIA’ 16/08/2021: Following the ICO ‘s (Information Commissioner’s Office) May 2021 volt-face and acceptance DCP (Damage to Crown Property) rates exist, Highways England has now been ordered to disclose more information. The Authority was asked to disclose the Cost Breakdown […]
TfL and the ‘Odd’ Situation that sees Road Users Charged More than the Authority?
In some road maintenance/repair agreements between contractors and Authorities (Councils or Highways England), a kind of ‘excess’ situation exists, there are two regimes in operation to recover monies from those who damage the highway or ‘street furniture’ (barriers, traffic lights, guard rails etc.): Where the costs are under £10,000 the contractor undertakes the repairs and […]