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| Andrew Pope Demands That the Council's Road and Pavement Contract with Balfour Beatty is Cancelled Image: Southampton Independents |
Andrew Pope is the Redbridge ward Independent Network candidate for Southampton City Council. He has been investigating the Council's roads and pavement contract with Balfour Beatty. This is because of constant complaints about the roads and pavements from residents of Southampton.
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| Andrew Pope Independent Network Photo: Southampton Independents |
Andrew says:
"I've asked Council officers to cancel the contract. Why? Because it's a clear failure, and because Balfour Beatty are admitted blacklisters."
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| Andrew Pope with Rubber Ducks in Rownhams Road, Southampton Image: Southampton Independents (AP) |
He has also been running the online game "Guess the Pothole", putting rubber ducks in the many potholes and posting the photos online, then asking residents where they think the pothole is, as reported by the Daily Echo. It has been very successful at drawing attention the failings. It also appears in Andrew's election address - see photo above. [The one in the photo is in Rownhams Road, when the gas pipeline was being replaced.]
The contract has been in place since 2010, when the Conservatives ran the Council. And since 2017, it has been extended - and extended again - by Labour running the Council.
In responding to Andrew's demand to cancel the contract, a Council spokesperson said:
"Based on its due diligence, to the Council’s knowledge neither Balfour Beatty Living Places nor any company in the Balfour Beatty group was involved in blacklisting at 2017 nor at the point of the award of the most recent contract in 2025. The Employment Relations Act 1999 (Blacklists) Regulations 2010 enshrines the position in legislation. Indeed it is widely reported that the practice in the construction industry ceased in 2009, which pre-dates the Council’s first highways contract with Balfour Beatty. Based on this position, the Council does not intend to terminate its contracts delivered by Balfour Beatty as a result of the historic blacklisting as its policy has not been breached."
Andrew says:
"The serious point to the game is to humiliate the Labour-run Council into cancelling the failed £60 million roads contract.
This contract is clearly a failure. Nobody in Southampton, other than the Labour councillors who voted it through, and Tory councillors Peter Baillie and Rob Harwood, think it has been a success. They've had sixteen years!
It is interesting that before becoming a Tory councillor, Rob Harwood was the Council officer who wrote the report for the Balfour Beatty contract. Not once, but twice - in 2010 and 2017. And then in 2018, he was elected to the same Council as a Tory councillor.
What an amazing coincidence, that he thinks the contract is great and his Group Leader Baillie does too.
Neither of them wanted to answer queetions when I asked him how he managed any perceived confict of interest. I gave them the right of reply. Worse than that, they said that such questions were 'irrelevant'. Harwood cost the Council over £25,000 for loose words; it seems that he has not learned his lesson.
On the doorsteps of Southampton, residents want to know. Residents want to know why the roads and pavements are so bad and why a failed contract has been allowed to go on for so long. My independent colleagues tell me that in Herefordshire, the Council cancelled Balfour Beatty. So should Southampton.
I've asked Council officers to cancel the contract. Why? Because it's a clear failure, and because Balfour Beatty are admitted blacklisters.
I changed the procurement rules of the Council when I was Councillor before. I was applauded by leading anti-blacklisting campaigners Dave Smith and Phil Chamberlain in their book "Blacklisted". The Council's rules that I put in place are supposed to prevent blacklisters getting council contracts. I took considerable time and effort to ensure officers put such rules in place.
Yet Council officers have refused in writing to cancel the contract, and have made excuses for Balfour Beatty, claiming blacklisting is somehow all in the past. Really? The unions don't think so, including Unite.
So how can a Labour-run Council justify handing another £60 million to Balfour Beatty - a figure which I uncovered and investigated?
They can't, if they are on the side of the working people of Southampton. But residents have worked out that Labour is not for working people and has not been for some time now.
What a shameful situation. Residents deserve to be protected from blacklisters and deserve to have better roads and pavement that are safe. Labour councillors voted this contract through, like the party puppets that they are.
I will carry on campaigning for residents - it is them who I respond to.
If I am elected on 7th May, I will have more powers to get answers and challenge for better roads and pavements."
