worldwidewebs Posted August 27, 2016 Share Posted August 27, 2016 Just finalising the electric supply from my DNO and they've now written to me saying that the council want manually-controlled 2-way traffic lights installed for a period of 3 days at a cost of £1000! From the pole to the plot is only about 8m so I can't believe it will take more than half a day to sort out. And they can park on my site. It's not even a busy road. Anyone else had this and is there a way of reducing the costs? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted August 27, 2016 Share Posted August 27, 2016 Is this to make a road crossing? It took half a day to make the road crossing over our single track road, but because of the VERY low level of traffic there was no requirement for lights, they just slid a big steel plate over the trench when a car wanted to pass. I always understood the utilities had a permanent road opening license and don't need to apply to the council each time, so why are the council poking their nose in? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oz07 Posted August 27, 2016 Share Posted August 27, 2016 Doesn't seem to be the case where I am. I've had a few delays lately due to double booked street permits. Our council doesn't let 2 utilities have them they the same week. The only solution I can think is to get in touch with someone at the company doing works and say what you've said above. Perhaps they will adjust? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted August 27, 2016 Share Posted August 27, 2016 If more than one service has to cross the road, get water in first (as theirs has to be deepest) and when the road is up to lay their pipe, drop in appropriate coloured (black for electricity, grey for telephone) ducts, with draw strings through them so you only need to have the road up once. Only 1 road opening permit and less delays. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oz07 Posted August 27, 2016 Share Posted August 27, 2016 Good advice but no way would they stand for that here! I'm not having a dig excuse pun but there is that much computer says no going on you wouldn't be able to say to the gas board- by the way don't quote me for any street works I've already laid your ducts in the road! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted August 27, 2016 Share Posted August 27, 2016 When you get a quote, it should be broken down into contestable and non contestable items. Non contestable is what the utilities have to do like the actual connection to their services. Contestable is things like digging trenches for them and even the road crossing. These you can appoint your own contractor or even do it yourself. In my case I had the road crossing done by Scottish Water as they were cheaper than both SSE and an independent contractor. And since the trench was already open for the water connection, enlarging it slightly to make a connection pit for the electricity was easy. Of course it was handy that all sevices come from the same place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
worldwidewebs Posted August 28, 2016 Author Share Posted August 28, 2016 No, there's no road crossing at all - just along a footpath! Bloody stupid. I think I'll give SP Energy a call on Tuesday and see why it's been requested Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterW Posted August 28, 2016 Share Posted August 28, 2016 So they want the road under traffic control so you can have work done on the pavement ..?? That is a new one on me ..!! Is it on a bend or a particularly narrow road ..? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted August 28, 2016 Share Posted August 28, 2016 Digging a trench along a footpath should still be something you could choose to use a private contractor for. The contractor must have a minor street works permit (might not be the exact wording) and get a road opening permit from the council. You may find the private contractor does not think they need traffic lights. Worth a try? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
worldwidewebs Posted August 28, 2016 Author Share Posted August 28, 2016 Attached is a photo of the road - our plot is just on the right. You can see the electric pole which is just past the end of the plot and the trench just has to come along the pavement. As you can see, it's a very busy road FPLane.tif Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stones Posted August 28, 2016 Share Posted August 28, 2016 Another example of how the same rules are applied differently between council areas. Very rare to see a set of traffic lights in our neck of the woods, a few cones and a vehicle strategically parked on the road seems to be order of the day up here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Declan52 Posted August 28, 2016 Share Posted August 28, 2016 When you are doing any street works the footpath is classed as part of the road and is treated the same. Any i ever set up never had traffic lights though. There is no way it would take three days to do 8m, a full day would be more than enough. If they insist on lights then hire a set out. A days hire of the lights, a few men at work signs , two blue arrows and 10 cones should be no more than a £100. You can also use remote controlled stop go boards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curlewhouse Posted August 28, 2016 Share Posted August 28, 2016 (edited) "Doesn't seem to be the case where I am. I've had a few delays lately due to double booked street permits. Our council doesn't let 2 utilities have them they the same week. " - yes, God forbid the street only gets dug up once when it could get dug up twice! Gotta love council "thinking". Edited August 28, 2016 by curlewhouse Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oz07 Posted August 28, 2016 Share Posted August 28, 2016 We can all think of ways to save money but think of all the "surveyors " etc it would put out of a job! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
worldwidewebs Posted September 21, 2016 Author Share Posted September 21, 2016 On 27 August 2016 at 20:28, ProDave said: When you get a quote, it should be broken down into contestable and non contestable items. Non contestable is what the utilities have to do like the actual connection to their services. Contestable is things like digging trenches for them and even the road crossing. These you can appoint your own contractor or even do it yourself. In my case I had the road crossing done by Scottish Water as they were cheaper than both SSE and an independent contractor. And since the trench was already open for the water connection, enlarging it slightly to make a connection pit for the electricity was easy. Of course it was handy that all sevices come from the same place. Do you know if contestable items also apply to Openreach? I've had a £6k+ quote for them to lay a duct 9m across the road and they say that a lot of this is down to traffic management! I got a moving quote (almost £7k!) but I know a chap who has his own TM company so would use him if I could. Openreach aren't exactly helping me find the answers... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted September 21, 2016 Share Posted September 21, 2016 All I knos is Open Reach didn't seem to care HOW their cable got from one side of the road to the other. They just gave me a drum of SWA cable. So if you can get a contractor to put a duct under the road cheaper, then ask OR to re quote on the basis that a duct and draw string is in place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stones Posted September 21, 2016 Share Posted September 21, 2016 BT Openreach have an obligation to provide you with a connection free of charge up to a value of around £3400. I believe that if the work is going to cost more they can charge you the entire amount rather than just the excess, so I think Dave is spot on. Get a suitably approved contractor to put in a duct and then get back to Openreach. Always amazed by the experiences posted on here about Openreach. They have (so far) been great on my build (an indeed on all my previous builds). I filled out the form via Openreach New Sites, had my acknowledgement within a day giving the local guy's contact number. The local chap told me where my connection would be made and asked me to call back a week or so before the digger was due on site. I did so, he came out the following day, and marked the position of the cable I would be connecting to. He came back out the day the digger started with some split ducts to put around the cable that runs across my driveway entrance, and left me a roll of SWA cable to run into the house. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted September 21, 2016 Share Posted September 21, 2016 If it's any use to anyone, we have had some Open Reach engineers staying in our B&B for a few weeks. I was asking them the procedure to actually get connected (my cable is from the house across the road and a coil of cable left directly above the BT cable in the verge) It is in fact not OR that you contact for your final connection, but your service provider (that's BT then) and when you request a new line, they will arrange the connection of the cable with OR. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
worldwidewebs Posted September 21, 2016 Author Share Posted September 21, 2016 The OR guy is great and is doing his best to try and help. He's hoping to get back to me later this week with other options - I'm not holding my breath but I don't have too many choices at the moment. As an aside, we're having the electric connected at the moment. I was told I had to stump up just short of £1k for 3 days of traffic management for a trench on the pavement, 8m long on our side of the road. I popped down this evening and basically there is a guy in a van watching the traffic and if one side gets too busy he switches from auto mode into manual until he can clear it. It's not that busy a road! Anyway, they dug the trench yesterday and put in the duct. Today they filled the trench in. Tomorrow they connect to the pole. 3 days!!!!!!!! I've got to go through all this with the water, gas and OR. The neighbours are going to love us Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trw144 Posted September 22, 2016 Share Posted September 22, 2016 Heard the bad news yesterday that my sewer connection will be £17k??! It's not far but the connection is 4m down on a relatively busy A road. Off to meet the guy in a second to explore a plan b. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Temp Posted September 22, 2016 Share Posted September 22, 2016 Sometimes there is scope to get a refund if other houses are built that connect into your sewer later. Nor sure of your exact situation but might be worth exploring. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted September 22, 2016 Share Posted September 22, 2016 Have you got room for a treatment plant and a soakaway? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterW Posted September 22, 2016 Share Posted September 22, 2016 2 hours ago, Trw144 said: Heard the bad news yesterday that my sewer connection will be £17k??! It's not far but the connection is 4m down on a relatively busy A road. Off to meet the guy in a second to explore a plan b. Thats a bit pricey ..! What's the breakdown of the costs ..? Is it the road closure that's causing the issue ..? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikey_1980 Posted September 22, 2016 Share Posted September 22, 2016 (edited) That does seem a lot, if you have the room it maybe more cost effective for a treatment plant at that price. Edited September 22, 2016 by Mikey_1980 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stones Posted September 22, 2016 Share Posted September 22, 2016 +1 on investigating the treatment plant / soakaway option Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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