BUCKINGHAMSHIRE COUNCIL has fined a gas company after ‘poorly managed’ works.

The gas company Cadent has been slapped with a fine after its emergency works caused “serious disruption” for residents in Chesham last week.

Angry residents took to social media to express their frustration over the five-way traffic lights on the bottom of Amersham Road A416, saying traffic in the area was gridlocked and there were queues lasting up to two hours on the town roads. 

Now Buckinghamshire Council has said it has fined Cadent and asked them to fill up the hole they dug up before leaving the site.

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Buckinghamshire Council’s cabinet member for transport councillor Steven Broadbent said: “We know these utilities works on Amersham Road have been poorly managed and have caused serious disruption for residents, which we will not tolerate. Therefore the council has decided to revoke the licence for the works, following multiple breaches of the conditions over subsequent days. We have also issued respective fines under the powers available to us and asked Cadent to reinstate the road before they leave the site.

“In general terms, utilities firms have the right to access their networks by digging up the roads to carry out repairs and improvement works and the council issues permits so the works can go ahead – but under these permits they are obliged to follow strict agreed criteria. Where utilities companies fail to keep to the permitted arrangements, or where they fail to manage works well enough, we will take action as shown in this instance.”

Cadent said it sets "very high standards" for its works and particularly with emergency repairs like on Amersham Road last week, the company's East of England head of customer operations Victoria Grieve said. 

"Unfortunately, we fell below those standards on this occasion and we would like to apologise to the residents of Chesham for the disruption and frustration that this would have caused. We will look to learn from this incident to ensure that such issues do not happen again," she added.