Hertfordshire’s Highway Contractor Ringway Under Fire Again from Angry Councillors

Ringway, Hertfordshire County Council's new highways contractor, has again come under fire from angry county councillors.

At a Council Meeting at County Hall, Hertford, on 26th February, senior Ringway directors heard a barrage of complaints from opposition councillors who questioned the Executive Member responsible for Highways, Conservative County Councillor Stuart Pile, over their poor performance since they took over responsibility for maintaining Hertfordshire roads last October.

Liberal Democrat Leader and Highways Spokesman, County Councillor Stephen Giles-Medhurst said, "I was pleased that almost every opposition councillor was able to air their concerns, and give examples, about the way Ringway had failed to deliver the services we are paying them for. But I was disappointed that Conservative councillors failed to raise complaints despite me knowing they
have similar worries about the contractors and performance. It's almost as if they did not want to seen to be criticising a multi-million pound company that they appointed to fix our roads."

"At least Councillor Stewart Pile took responsibility for the mess we have and admitted that Ringway has let residents down and were now trying to get on top of the backlog of street light faults and road and footway
repairs. But there should not be the need to get on top of anything had they delivered the service we paid them for from the 1st October!

"I am also pleased that after I sent Stuart and the County an "open letter" detailing not less than 18 failures in performance failure areas they issued Ringway with a Formal Warning Letter under the terms of the contract.

"Residents deserve better. I want Ringway to put right the faults they have missed, not provide excuses about new staff, contractor regulations or anything else. Ringway will make a profit on this contract, I've no doubt and in return our residents must get a good service. The question now is: did theConservatives, who run County Hall, act quickly enough and put enough pressure on when they knew things were going wrong? It does seem they only acted after opposition members raised issues of concern. Their silence today seems to bear that out."