Gas firm apologises for unattended south Essex roadworks - as staff attend funeral

A GAS firm has apologised to residents for leaving roadworks unattended in Hullbridge after staff were given a day off to attend a funeral.

Mark Francois, Rayleigh and Wickford MP, took aim at Cadent Gas for its “consistently poor performance” and raised concerns that roadworks on Ferry Road, were unmanned when he drove past on Friday.

He branded the company “lazy” and is set to raise the issue of roadworks during a debate at the House of Commons on Thursday.

The company has apologised and stated the team of engineers were at a funeral on Friday and it was unable to send an alternative team.

However, Cadent did not address Mr Francois wider concerns about “endlessly delayed roadworks”.

Mr Francois said: “My constituents are fed up to the back teeth with being endlessly delayed by multiple roadworks and even more infuriated when no-one is even working on them.

“In my experience, all the utility companies have problems with this, but Cadent are by far the worst.

“Put simply, they are just exceptionally lazy- and they don’t give two hoots about the chaos they cause.

“We now have a debate in the commons about roadworks this Thursday and, if I am called to speak, I am going to well and truly call them out, in Parliament.

“They are just a disgrace.”

Cadent insisted the work on Ferry Road is ahead of schedule and will be completed as soon as possible.

A spokesman said: “We would like to apologise to local residents of Hullbridge who didn’t see any engineers on site on Ferry Road last Friday.

“Unfortunately, the team were attending a funeral on Friday and we were unable to send an alternative team on that day.

“I would like to stress that this work has been redesigned to complete quicker.

“We are now inserting the gas pipe into the old main, reducing the programme to six weeks. We have just started the programme of works and we are progressing well and are on schedule as planned.

“We are putting every effort in place to complete these works as safety and quickly as possible with the engineers working 7am-7pm, six-seven days a week as necessary.”