Workmen on East Dulwich Grove 9pm tonight

[richardblack]

For the second time in recent past we've got workmen drilling using heavy equipment late at night on a sunday. Same spot as last time. The vans say that its the gas network. Unreasonable noise late at night? do i have grounds to tell them to stop? are they just dodgey workmen trying to sqeeze jobs out?

Any thoughts

Richard

[richardblack]

Anybody got any thoughts on if they are allowed to be doing this at this time of night? I feel most sorry for the person who's house it is directly outside of. I accept that there's a case where emergency repairs might be needed but they have suddenly turned up just before 9pm.

[Callie]

If it's bothering you, ring the southwark noise team to report it. Tel 020 7525 5777 . They will also be able to check to see if they are supposed to be there.

[Twirly]

I'd have thought that if it's the gas network working late on a Sunday that it's more than likely emergency works, so probably a leak, which personally I'd want fixed if it was near my house. But I'd also probably call up the appropriate company to ask what was going on and why it was being done so late on a Sunday. Do you have kids who are trying to sleep?

[spanglysteve]

IF they appeared at 9pm I would assume its emergency. No one starts a regular job at that time.

[James Barber]

Why not go and ask them?

I did this with a crew working on the pavement outside my house and it turned out to be some dodgy Virgin Media sub cotnractors. Dodgy in the sense it wasn't emergency works and they were not signing and barriering their partial road closure.

When asked they packed up and went.

[Burbage]

Have a look at public.londonworks.gov.uk, which exists to inform the public on such matters and, presumably as an unintended consequence, stop them bleating.

According to which:

Location: East Dulwich Grove, London. footway and carrigeway o/s 49&49a east dulwich grove

Reference: XW025W108148457-00852

Status: Works In Progress

Works owner: Southern Gas Networks, 0845 026 0015

Street authority: Southwark

Start date: 15/01/2012

End date: 27/01/2012

Description: Emergency Gas Escape is in Progress

I'm not an expert on either emergencies or gas, I've been lucky enough to have seen this sort of activity before. Although a week might seem pessimistic, it can take them a while to find and fix the leak and reinstate everything. Happily, they don't spend all that time drilling and hammering, but it does vary according to how many holes they have to dig before they get one in the right place and how many attempts are needed to get the reinstatement adequate.

Non-emergency works are being encouraged to take place "off-peak", which includes weekends and overnight, to to minimise the impact on traffic, according the Mayor's Code of Conduct for Roadworks. Overnight work happens fairly regularly with road resurfacing, but it still seems unusual for other sorts of work, presumably because it's more expensive and dark. The Code does have a paragraph in it about avoiding disturbance to residents, but I can't be sure how robustly it stands up to the several paragraphs about avoiding disruption to traffic.

In the meantime, TfL and some boroughs are valiantly trialling lane rental schemes, designed to reduce the overall time of road closures by charging utilities by the hour for each lane they close, making it more expensive for them (or, more likely, their customers) to dawdle. If it does work, then it might increase the likelihood of overnight working, If it doesn't, it'll just put the bills up. But, almost thrillingly, it's too early to tell.

[richardblack]

Thanks everyone, yes I did go out and politely ask them. Sadly you do get contractors starting jobs at funny times but this was an emergency so sadly on they went.

Richard