Project to bury cables 'a shambles' say Newbiggin residents

WORKS to bury overhead cables in an upper dale village have been branded “a shambles”.
Northern Powergrid are working with the North Pennines AONB to hide cables in a bid to improve the landscape at a cost of £180,000.
The digging has now hit Newbiggin but parish councillor and villager John Lawson did not think much of efforts so far.
“We have never had any consultation or anything – it’s been a shambles,” said Cllr Lawson.
“They haven’t finished yet – they dug a big hole in front of the village hall. The AONB came out on Wednesday and Saturday but it’s been a cock-up from day one.”
Roadworks and bollards were up on the B6277 for more than five weeks before being removed.
However, the digging works are expected to return soon.
Villager Gerald Wearmouth, who lives on the main road, has borne the brunt of the engineering work.
“It’s been total chaos for five or six weeks,” said Mr Wearmouth.“There was a set of traffic lights here for two weeks and nobody was here at all apart from the Saturday and Sunday.
“They dug a hole in the road – when the drill was going through the bedrock it was shaking my house.”
Overhead cables started being buried in the upper dale three years ago.
The scheme was dubbed “pointless”, “daft” and “expensive” by residents at the time.
County workers repaired the bridge which sits between Mr Wearmouth’s home and the village hall with concrete 12 years ago. The retired engineer was not too impressed with the quality and finish of some of the recent work.
“There was a good grass verge and a lot of flowers,” he said. “It’s exposed my whole wall – a lot of my foundation stones were taken away.”
Northern Powergrid had contracted engineering firm Clancy Docwra to complete the work by the end of November.
But the firm cited “poor weather”, a leaking water pipe and complications with burying the cable under the bridge for the delay.
Simon Wilson, planning and biodiversity officer at the North Pennines AONB, said: “This hasn’t been well-handled by the company and their contractors in this particular case and a number of residents have voiced concerns over how the work is being done.
“We share those concerns and the AONB Partnership has made it clear to Northern Powergrid, and its contractor, that they should remedy the situation by fully reinstating the highway and private land to the highest standards.
“We have also advised them to replace a damaged water pipe, improve consultation with the community and resolve any other issues as a priority.”
Engineer at Northern Powergrid Pete Carr apologised to residents for the disruption.
He said: “I’d like to reassure them that all reinstatement work, including landscaping and verging will be rectified before Clancy Docwra leave the site.
“We have increased resources on the job to ensure that we are completed and have left the village before Christmas.”
Meanwhile, Mr Wearmouth has spent eight years in a battle with Northumbrian Water to get his old half inch water pipe replaced.
The water company has told the 69-year-old the pipe, which also serves the village hall, isn’t the firm’s responsibility.
He eventually took matters into his own hands, fixing a new two inch bore pipe with Cllr Lawson’s help – just yards away from the contractor’s works.
Cllr Lawson said Northumbrian Water had quoted £750 to have the water connected further up the village.
“The residents shouldn’t be responsible for a pipe in the main road,” he added.
“If it’s in a field it’s different but a main road is expensive to dig up. It’s not a £500 job.”
A spokesman for Northumbrian Water said the pipe was part of a private system.
“When we installed a new mains pipe some years ago, those responsible for a small number of properties declined the opportunity to connect to our system,” he said.
“Those private pipes are the responsibility of the owners of the properties, as is the cost
of any renewal or maintenance.”