Fareham residents to face 6 months of traffic hell thanks to water main works - with no notice

 

Portsmouth Water will start work to the water mains in Furzehall Avenue and adjacent roads in Fareham on Monday as part of its renewal scheme to reduce risk of bursts and leakages but home owners have told The News the first they heard about it was from a councillor's Facebook page earlier this week.

Matt James lives in one of the roads that will be affected in the coming weeks.

The 33-year-old said: '˜The first thing we heard about these works was thanks to a friend sharing a councillor's Facebook post.

'˜I don't know if other people got letters because their roads are affected first and our work in our road starts nearer Christmas but from what I have seen on social media and talking with neighbours no one really knew about this.

'˜It is going to cause a lot of disruption as is going to be temporary traffic lights at the top of the road as well.'

Work is due to start on Monday in Furzehall Avenue for 17 weeks with phased starts for other roads, including Swallow Wood, Foxgloves and Harebell Close, over the next six months 

Councillor Tom Davies shared the information on Facebook to residents. 

He said: '˜My concern is that these works are scheduled to take a very long time and while I and the residents appreciate that these works are necessary it's frustrating that no one's been told.

'˜Residents need time to plan and make alternative arrangements and they really should have been consulted and informed well in advance.'

Furzehall Avenue resident Dave Littlejohn also found out about the planned works on Facebook while he was on holiday in America last week.

The 58-year-old said: '˜To find out on social media that this was all happening was pretty surprising and extremely frustrating.

'˜We got a letter yesterday to tell us the work was happening next week but to give people one working day's notice that this is about to happen on their doorstep is unbelievable.'

A spokesperson for the utility company said: '˜Portsmouth Water's mains renewal programme is based on both reducing the number of bursts on out network and reducing the impact those bursts would have on our customers.

'˜We are therefore proactively replacing PVC mains in this area to avoid customers going without water for extended periods of time due to a burst event in the future.

'˜Throughout the planning stage Portsmouth Water has liaised closely with Hampshire County Council when planning and organising the work.'