24-05-2025
Water company leaves ‘asphalt scar' after digging up pavement
A water company left a 12ft-long black asphalt 'scar' after digging up part of a £14 million pavement.
Thames Water dug up the thin section of expensive granite blocks in St James's, London, to access pipework beneath - but then replaced them with a streak of black tarmac - two years ago.
Since then, the Labour-run City of Westminster Council has failed to force Thames Water to restore the paving, leaving the area tarnished by the black 'street scar' since July 2023.
The granite paving was laid as part of a £14 million pedestrianisation project in 2014, and utility firms are required to replace damaged areas with 'like-for-like' materials within six months if they dig up a road. But they only face a £2,500 one-off fine if they don't.
Nicholas Boys Smith, the director of Create Streets and a former director of the Office for Place quango, said the scar was a 'modest but meaningful' example of the 'failing British state'.
He told The Telegraph. 'We've all seen them: the freshly laid paving, the newly laid granite setts: within months, weeks or even days, a slice or a square of them is thoughtlessly pulled up, cracked, smashed or thrown away and replaced with a scar of tarmac which lingers for months or years.
''I am authority', the scar says. 'I don't care about you. Your neighbourhood, your home does not matter and by implication, YOU don't matter'.'
Call to increase fines
Mr Boys Smith previously called for the fine to be raised to £10,000 for every month that goes by before restoration.
Cllr Tim Mitchell, a Conservative councillor for St James's, said the authority faced a 'constant battle' with utilities to get them to return paving to its original condition after repairs were made.
'I would normally expect that it would be properly made good within 12 months,' he said. 'But it hasn't been.'
He added that he's now 'reluctant to approve really fancy schemes for high-quality paving' without first investigating 'what might be likely to be ripped up'.
'That said, the council should really keep tabs on the utilities and they have the powers to require them to go back,' he said. 'It is absolutely frustrating because the council has to spend a lot of time chasing utilities to come back and smarten things up.'
A spokesman for the council said Thames Water had agreed to install new paving in place of the 'street scar', but that it had not yet done so.
'The utility works were carried out by Thames Water,' the spokesman said. 'The council subsequently complained about the state of repair and Thames Water have now agreed to pay for the stone paving to be restored to its original condition.'
It is understood that the repair works are due to be carried out within the next two months.
