Gas firm fined for shoddy work in Bognor Regis

Southern Gas Networks has been hit with the cost for failing to neatly reinstate grass verges around the A29/Orchard Way roundabout.

The site was recently subject to long-running major excavation works to install new pipes. But the poor quality of the work was criticised by a highways inspector from West Sussex County Council.

Area highways manager Tracey Webb said: "His inspections usually cost people money. He doesn't believe work on the A29 has reached the satisfactory level required.

"The amount of the fine is dictated by the government. It is the charge so far.

"If the work continues not to be done to our satisfaction, the charge will go up on a weekly basis until we are satisfied."

She also told councillors she had required the installation company to look again at its repairs along Orchard Way.

"We want to make sure they have properly compacted the road under the

surface.

"Our concern is that we leave it, the company goes away and the road subsides in six months' time because it has not carried out the repair work," she said.

The county council's ability to impose sanctions on utility firms had been boosted by a recent law.

"We would have been able to fine the company before, but it would have been a smaller amount," she added. "Things are getting better."

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