A CONTRACTOR has been reprimanded after carrying out work without permission from authorities.

A resident was concerned about roadworks being carried out last week on Pershore Road, Hampton, Evesham as he had not seen any notifications on the Worcestershire County Council website. He sent a message on the website complaining that long tailbacks caused by the temporary traffic lights were an inconvenience to residents, and that no warning had been given of the roadworks.

Worcestershire County Council responded: " These works were started by a contractor without permission. They started work with no permit in place, and had to be stopped working until the matter could be resolved. As they had already dug up the road, we had no choice but to allow them to finish off the work that they had started. They have been reprimanded for this, and a record of non compliance has been raised against them.

These works are for remedial repairs to the road and footpath around the junction. If the correct procedure had of been followed, we would have asked for these works to have been undertaken in the upcoming school half term to reduce disruption."

The road works started last Monday. The permanent traffic lights on the road were switched off and the resident says the temporary traffic lights that were installed and part of the road being coned off by the contractors while they dug up the road near the SPAR shop caused long tail backs all the way up the road. "They take longer to change, and there were people jumping the lights anyway" he said.

Information on all roadworks being carried out in Worcestershire can be found at worcestershire.roadworks.org.