An EastSheenMatters subscriber wrote this morning:

“Rush hour traffic on the Upper Richmond Road was again held up by traffic lights [this time] outside Sheen Sports. Having passed the traffic lights at 1pm, complete with attendant queues of traffic, I can report that not only is there no one working there but the job on the pavement is complete. The barriers and lights are serving no purpose other than to make life difficult and frustrating for thousands of road users.”

The photos below were taken half an hour later. Local shopowners told ESM that there had been an electricity cutout at 4am. The barriers were erected when workers arrived on site at about 930am. They created one way traffic from just east of the Sheen Lane traffic lights and blocked the road to the east of Richmond Park Road.

The sign above says that the work will be completed by 31/3/2026.

ESM rang the emergency telephone number to make enquiries, to be told that the works had been completed and a separate group had been emailed to say that they could now complete the job. That will likely be done on Thursday 26 March.

This raises a number of questions.

Why do the barriers need to extend so far into the road, when all the work was being done on the pavement? Why did the barriers need to extend so far along the road? Why can’t they coordinate works so that it is all done in as short a time as possible?

Heath and safety is of course all important, but it is difficult to see that anyone’s safety could have been affected if there had merely been a worker’s van parked by the work.

Instead we have queues of traffic where there are already the highest pollution levels in the borough. We have frustrated drivers trying to get to and from work: it will no doubt be worse this evening.

The responsible organisation is UK Power Networks which appears to be an autonomous body responsible to no higher authority other than (so ESM was told) OFGEM. Try getting any timely response from them.

We have been suffering these roadworks regularly always with the same timetable. Call out, restrict the traffic; do the works (without any realistic time estimate); sometimes call out a separate contractor to fill a hole; vacate the site of workers; call out a separate team to remove barriers.

Nowhere does there appear to be any supervision of the work being done or any attempt to speed up works to allow for the damage being caused to the health and safety of local residents. UK Power Networks is a law unto itself.

The only response youl will get from Richmond Council is ‘it’s not our business’. The same applies when they blame TfL. It’s high time for the local population to be informed about discussions the Council should be having with these other agencies about their management of repairs.