My Borough High Street roadworks were badly managed, admits Boris

Last month Borough High Street was reopened to southbound traffic four months ahead of schedule after the Mayor's deputy, Isabel Dedring, intervened to get works speeded up.

Val Shawcross, Labour London Assembly member for Lambeth and Southwark, tabled questions to the Mayor about the Borough High Street works and Mr Johnson's responses have now been published.

Ms Shawcross asked the Mayor whether the Borough works met the criteria for "badly managed" works under the proposed lane rental scheme for roadworks in the capital.

"The roadworks at Borough High Street, as they were on 22 September, did qualify as 'badly managed'," replied Mr Johnson.

"This is because there were not enough people working on site, they were finishing work in the afternoon rather than working until later, there was far too much road space coned off and the site was generally untidy.

"I was therefore very pleased that, as of 23 September, TfL doubled the workforce, instructed the contractor to work the full permitted hours, re-opened the road to two -way traffic and moved all construction materials and other equipment so that it was stored neatly and tidily in one location at the south end of the scheme.

"These changes meant that instead of lasting until the end of December, the works will now be finished by the end of October.

"Under my proposed lane rental scheme, all works within the congestion management areas (CMA) of the Transport for London Road Network, including those undertaken by TfL, will be liable to pay lane rental fees. Borough High Street is located in a CMA, and therefore is an area that would require works provision, whether underwritten by the utilities or TfL, to pay charges after the scheme is launched."

However, the accelerated works programme means that some Borough residents are now being disturbed by late-night noise as contractors rush to complete the scheme by the end of the month.