Roadworks on Marmora Road

[simonethebeaver]

Just a warning that workers turned up this morning on Marmora Road to start digging it up. They claim that warning letters were sent out, but we received nothing and, from the fact that no one seemed to have moved their car, I don't think my neighbours had either. They are putting cars on to lorries, and being pretty charmless about the whole thing. I have no idea where the cars will end up. Anyone had any warning of this?

[simonethebeaver]

I have done lots of chasing, including an unbelievably unhelpful and uninformative call to Southwark Council (who didn't have contact details either for the contractors or their own highway department), and spoken to HM Conways, the contractors. Both the council and contractors have had 'several' calls on this so far today. Conways claim warning letters went out, but are investigating why this seems to have failed to reach everyone. They also say warning signs and cones were up, but again, not true.

Anyway, if you do live in the area, and come home tonight to find your car missing, you need to call 020 7737 3333 to find out where it's gone. Presumably during business hours.

[VikkiM]

I've contacted the councillors about this asking that they raise it with the council.

Conways are the contractor on Ivydale Road where there was a string of problems before Christmas with communicating what was happening with residents.

They also seemed to be moving cars with lorries on Fernholme and Rosenthorpe last week when they did resurfacing there - I don't know if letters went out to residents or not but the signs that went up are those that look that planning application notices so relatively easy to miss.

[simonethebeaver]

I've also emailed them. The rudeness of staff and Conways complete failure to communicate are unacceptable. I've also found out that the work was due to start on 13 January but postponed owing to the weather. So any warning letters received will have been pointless in any case, as the commencement date is wrong.

[PeckhamRose]

This is outrageous!

Go to a COmmunity Council meeting and demand answers. Try and take all your neighbours with you.

No idea if it would work - CCs have so little power - but I hope they lose their contract.

[VikkiM]

I raised the Ivydale scheme at the October Community Council meeting but also asked what the process was for disseminating information about impending works and how the council follows up with residents who have been consulted about any scheme.

The response I got at the December meeting was really quite unhelpful as it referred only to the Ivydale scheme and simply said that a letter drop had been done and that work had started on so-and-so date in November. In fact, many residents hadn't got the letter and the start date stated was inaccurate. But more importantly the wider point wasn't answered.

I missed the start of the December meeting so wasn't able to query the response. However I promised Nunhead Forum readers that I would follow this up at the next meeting on 8 Feb. Happy to mention the Marmora Rd stuff as well or would be great if others came and raised this too.

[Peckwich]

The cars have been 'relocated' to Scutari Road.

[Marmora Man]

We were warned that works would commence on 11 Jan - but it was a surprise to see Conway's in action at 7.15 this morning. Fortunately I had parked on Scutari anyway.

While we have a Marmora Road audience - can anyone identify the new non pooper scooper? It seems to go in cycles - a few poop free weeks than a newcomer arrives, or someone loses the will to clean up after their dog.

If you own a dog - scoop the mess.

[simonethebeaver]

I've complained to the councillors, who have passed it on to the complaints team at the council.

I'm glad you got some sort of warning, Marmora Man. We have searched all our post and none of us received anything at all, so maybe the letters only made it halfway up the road.

[ED Newbie]

I was lucky to be at home to move my car. Poor guy next door works nights and got his car taken away. They knocked on the flat doors but he lives in the basement flat and didn't knock - I got there just in time to warn him.

I actually spoke to two of the men and they blatantly said that no notification was sent out of the revised works, nor was there any signs on the road of planned works to move our cars. So they admit this has been poorly planned.

Another guy was effin and blining and his choice of words were along the lines of no one having a scooby of what's going on.

Not impressed with their actions - I belive the letter of the original works has a feedback form attached. I'll be telling them what I think.

[dbboy]

Are the road works in Forest Hill Road connected to the re-surfacing in Marmora?

[simonethebeaver]

No connection at all as far as I know. Just a happy coincidence. I had a really good reply to my complaint from the highways people-it's on my work email but I'll post it when I get the chance. Basically it was an apology on all counts. Conways had been asked to do the letter drop-council's check the morning of the work revealed 3 of the 16 people in at that time hadn't had any letters and of course no one had correct date-council will do own drops in future and have someone on site at the start of all works ( although presumably whoever was doing the survey could have helped out?).

Apologies for rudeness of staff-Conways will investigate. Apologies for crapness of service centre-sounds like things went seriously wrong there and inquiries are being made.

[VikkiM]

Just an update from Community Council last night. I raised both this scheme and the ongoing problems on Ivydale Road at the meeting. Cllr Fiona Colley (Nunhead ward) also spoke about the problems she's had finding out what was going on on Ivydale Road and with how Conways have been communicating with residents.

Rather than going into the specific details of the problems with any particular set of works, what we've asked council officers to look at is:

- How residents are contacted about proposed works - is it a notice, a letter drop, notification in the Southwark News, something on the Southwark website? If the works are the result of a consultation, could the consultation document detail this?

- Could there be a bit of consistency so that we all know what to look out for?

- Who is responsible for contacting residents - the council or the contractor?

- If it's the cntractor (which I think it is/was for both Ivydale and Marmara) how is the council monitoring that it's being done/what's the come back if it isn't?

There were traffic/transport council officers there who I think got a fair idea of what I and others are asking for so hopefully we'll get a decent response at the next meeting and hopefully a few suggestions to improve communications in the future. One of these could be a promise of someone on site at the start of all works as simonethebeaver mentions above.

Victoria.

Peckham Rye Labour

[James Barber]

Sad to see that Conways screwed up telling people that works were due to start. I can understand the delay for a week with all the snowy weather but delivering another letter would'nt have taken long.

Amazed at report that Nunhead ward Cllr Colley finding it hard to find out what is going on with Ivydale/Marmora. The council publishes all its centrally funded highways renovations early in the financial year. Every councillor is emailed about the decision going to be taken, then all cllrs emailed later that the decision has been taken. Cllr Colley is the chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and is meant to lead on scrutinising all such decisions. Equally each community council should know how its spending its highway renovations money and when making those decisions officers point out the centrally funded plans for the community council and tell councillors roughly when they'll take place.

[ruffers]

J M Conway signs appeared on lamp posts last night on Melford Road warning cars would be moved on the 10th ie today. There has been no prior notification of this.

[simonethebeaver]

Hi

Interesting to see what happened at the Community Council - thanks for letting us know. I've been meaning to post the whole of the quite helpful response I got:

Firstly I would like to personally apologise for the obvious aggravation caused to you on the morning of the 19th due to our carriageway resurfacing activities in Marmora Rd.

In the Streetcare team we are very much aware of the potential that roadworks have in disrupting residents' lives and have established procedures aimed at minimising such disruption. However in this case it appears that these process went badly wrong and then compounded by your difficulties in contacting the appropriate Council officers via the call centre.

We have investigated the issues you raised and while it may be of small recompense changes in our procedures have been made to ensure that the difficulties you encountered last Tuesday are not repeated.

Prior notification to residents:

It is normal procedure to advise residents by mail providing warning of the impending works and request their co-operation regarding parking. In the case of the Marmora Rd scheme we were in a period of uncertain of weather and having to make decisions on a daily basis on whether to proceed with projects. It was decided therefore for the contractor, FM Conway to handle the prior notification via letter drops as a means of shortening the communication chain. Also at that time available officers were occupied with gritting / salting activities

It appears that although prior notification letters dated 11th Jan were sent out (but not all received) these were not followed up by advising that the work had been delayed due to bad weather. On Wednesday 09:00 -10:00 we carried out a survey of 42 properties in Marmora Rd. As may be expected most people had left for work. Of those we able to interview 13 confirmed receipt of letters and 3 had not. It would appear that you were not alone in not receiving letters.

In future we will retain control of the distribution prior notification letters to residents. Two letters will be issued at 2 weeks and 5 days prior to the planned commencement of works and supplemented by signs providing contact details. We will also ensure that a Council representative is available at the commencement of activities to address any issues that may arise on the day

Difficulties in accessing the appropriate officer / unit via the call centre:

This very disappointing since we have recently provided updated lists of work area, names and telephone contacts. We are in discussion with colleagues in the call centre to rectify this problem.

In future we will supply details our imminent schemes, names of roads and contact details to the call centre. By naming the road we hope that the appropriate officer can be immediately recognised

Attitude of site operatives:

I have spoken to Conways management regarding the altercation with your builders and they are investigating the matter. They are keen to identify the person who apparently requested ?70 for the relocation of the building materials from the carriageway to the footway. I am happy to act as a middleman between your builder and our contractor if this is preferable.

We will endeavour to ensure that the remaining works are handled smoothly but should any issues arise please contact me

[VikkiM]

Hi James - not sure I quite follow what you mean about Ivydale? It's been the delivery rather than the decisions that have been problematic.

I have to say that I've lost track of exactly when things were going to happen but, very roughly, residents were consulted over a year ago and the work was initially planned for June or July. This has been pushed back on numerous ocassions with the works only starting in November though not on the dates set out on the final letter drop. The works on the Peckham Rye end of Ivydale are still to start but I'm assured that Conways will give us 7 days notice by letter drop and that the re-routing of the 343 and 484 will be well-publicised in advance...

Fiona has done a great job of chasing council officers and Conways throughout the process. This included getting us a letter with a clear and updated timetable in December. Nunheaders lurking on here can find info on www.nunheadforum.co.uk

But all this aside, hopefully something will come out of the Community Council query so that we're all a little bit more clued up on what we should be looking for and the council/contractors get a little better at telling us what's going on.

Victoria.

Peckham Rye Labour

[FionaC]

Goodness James! Did you get out of the wrong side of bed yesterday?;-)

I'm afraid you don't quite understand the situation here.

Actually the Ivydale scheme isn't a renovation scheme it's a major traffic calming scheme and I was in no way suggesting at community council that I didn't know about the proposals which had indeed been discussed at community council and which I had blogged about repeatedly. Indeed due to my interventions the plans were altered to include a zebra crossing by Ivydale Primary School and measures around Limesford Rd.

The big problem with the scheme has been with the communications to residents about the final plans, the road closures and bus diversions. I wasn't consulted about the comms at all and had to spend a considerable amount of time in December after the works had started trying to extract full details from highways officers about the implementation plans and to get them to send clear and complete information out to residents in the area.

Anyway it seems that the comms have been delegated to the contractor Conways and my conclusion was that on a scheme as large and complex as the Ivydale Rd/Linden Grove pinch point scheme that this isn't the best way to do things. Conways have done a good job with the repaving and resurfacing etc, but communications is clearly not their area of expertise.

In contrast I've been impressed with the TfL/Lewisham communications with residents regarding the Kender Rd Triangle works (inc work on the Nunhead/Lewisham boundary of Pomeroy St) starting this month where there are proper plans being distributed and more information is available on the website. This level of spend on comms would of course be excessive for most traffic projects, but following my recent experience with Ivydale Rd I do think that the council needs to sharpen up its act.

Hopefully the discussion we had at Community Council and the follow up questions will help to make this happen.

Fiona

Cllr Fiona Colley

Labour Member for Nunhead Ward

[simonethebeaver]

I wonder how this bit of the response I got:

In future we will retain control of the distribution prior notification letters to residents.

will be implemented, as it appears that Conways will be letter dropping in Ivydale?

[VikkiM]

simonethebeaver - yep this all seems to make things less clear... If it's okay I'll sent details of your response to the council officer who was at the Community Council meeting in the hope we can get the clearest possible response at the next meeting.

Victoria

Peckham Rye Labour