A WORKER dancing in the street is just one of the complaints about road works in and around Tenbury.

But more serious are a catalogue of complaints about poor quality work and poor signposting.

Work on the town centre that should have been completed more than a year ago also continues to rumble on.

Ken Pollock, who represents Tenbury on Worcestershire County Council, admits that mistakes have been made but defends the authority and its contractors.

He says that allegations that work is delayed so that it can be crammed in at the end of the financial year are false.

Ken Pollock describes the failure to finish off work on phase one of the town centre improvement project as ‘snagging'.

“I am aware of certain aspects of the snagging that are not yet complete,” he said.

“These will be fitted in as quickly as possible. They include the silencing of the noisy drain and manhole covers outside Caldicott’s. In such circumstances, it would be good if problems like that were communicated as quickly as possible via the online reporting system, followed up by a complaint to me if the response is unsatisfactory.”

He said that complaints about a contractor directing traffic dancing in the street while on duty were embarrassing but did not constitute dereliction of duty.

Ken Pollock defended the actions of the worker who is employed by the contractor Headway.

He was at the bottom of Berrington Road, making sure that motorists did not have access to closed sections of Cross Street.

“This does not involve continuous communication with the public and clearly at the times observed, there was no motorist needing advice,” said Ken Pollock.

“It might be worth observing that this sort of job attracts a lot of criticism and abuse from the public, who do not appreciate finding their access restricted in this way. This is also regrettable.”

He said that there have been complaints about the quality of repairs to Oldwood Road, Cross Street and Kyrewood Road.

Ken Pollock said that the process being used is cheaper than traditional resurfacing but does a good job.

“I don’t think it is of poor quality and it must be understood that it is preparatory to surface dressing later this year,” he said.

“It is much cheaper than full reinstatement of a damaged road, while it must be accepted that aesthetically it is less attractive in the phase between patching and surface dressing.”

He added that people have been complaining about signage to help people avoid road works and admitted that mistakes have been made and people left confused by conflicting information.

“We do not always give enough information, although we now have to conform to Department of Transport rules that say you must not have more than one page of information on the electrical message sign,” added Ken Pollock.

“Sometimes signs get removed or blown over. Sometimes we do not repeat the message to reassure people of its significance. Sometimes there are conflicting reports on what signs actually say.

“Clearly, any confusion is regrettable, and I am keen to have a meeting with our officers to see if we cannot devise a better method of information provision.”