I've spent my morning in #Basingstoke, looking at the major works being undertaken to improve the Brighton Hill roundabout by Hampshire County Council's contractors.
If you remember, this was the location where piling work cut telephone cables a couple of weeks ago, cutting off internet and phone services for many people. I'm grateful to my colleague Cllr Stephen Reid for coming along too, those cut off were largely in Stephen's Basingstoke South West division.
The purpose of the visit was to understand better what happened and also discuss what lessons can be learned for the future.
What seems incredible is that there is no national, or local, database of where utility cables and ducts are situated, the construction teams are entirely dependent upon information from utility companies, which is often old, inaccurate and/or out of date. As in this case, that leads to accidents occurring which can cause significant disruption. Something definitely to take to our MPs.
