RESIDENT ACTION: Help Us To Hold Labour Councillors To Account for Extending the Tories' Failed Roads and Pavements Contract

 

Labour's Highway Robbery - Councillors Bung Balfour Beatty ANOTHER £60 MILLION

Labour or Tory, same old story. We've been saying this for a decade now. Southampton people say it back to us on their doorsteps, on social media and in their emails. People agree and are deserting Labour and the Tories in their droves. 

The state of our City's roads is another glaring example of Labour's failures since 2012, when they took control of the Council. They've had thirteen years in power, with the Tories having just one year.

Andrew Pope invented "Guess the Pothole" in 2017 to bring attention to the terrible state of our roads. He brought it back this year, because NINE YEARS LATER, they haven't improved. The rubber ducks are fun, but they bring a serious point that the contract has failed Southampton, despite the huge amount of public money spent on it.

Residents want the Balfour Beatty contract CANCELLED - a decision which our independent colleagues in Herefordshire Council have told us, has already been done. 

But Labour has allocated £60 MILLION to a company that has repeatedly admitted blacklisting - despite Councillor Andrew Pope changing the procurement rules of the Council when last a councillor, to prohibit blacklisting.

 

Extension, not Cancellation - IN SECRET

As exclusively investigated and reported by our Co-Founder Andrew Pope, the Labour-run Council has EXTENDED the failing roads and pavements contract with Balfour Beatty. The Council call it the Highways Service Partnership. 

But there was no fanfare. As exclusively confirmed by Andrew Pope's questions to Council officers, there was no media release of the extension. 

The decision was done in the Council Chamber in secret, with the public not allowed to see the details or hear any debate or ask questions about the detail. This is YOUR MONEY. The Head of Legal allowed this to be done. Do you agree that this is wrong?

The Council's so-called "Transparency Report" was hard to find. It was published in the tiniest writing that had to be zoomed into by 300% to be able to read. Buried in there, Andrew found the £60 million figure and asked Council officers why it was so hidden, and why it wasn't made clearer. 

 

Council's Refusal of Cancellation - They Say It's All in the Past

As exclusively revealed, Council officers have REFUSED Andrew Pope's request on behalf of Southampton residents to CANCEL the contract. 

Andrew asked for this because residents say that the contract has failed for sixteen years since 2010, and because Balfour Beatty blacklisted workers. 

The Council claims that blacklisting is all in the past, so it's OK. Various unions including Unite have said that blacklisting is continuing. Is there another secret list, the same as the Economic League and Consulting Association.

So we have exclusively revealed which Labour councillors voted FOR this extension. They would have had to stand up in the Council chamber and said "For!" when each of them was asked by the Lord Mayor for their vote.

As in our previous article, they were:

"From the Minutes of the meeting, you can see it was Labour councillors only. This INCLUDES the two now Labour MPs, Satvir Kaur and Darren Paffey:

"NOTE: NOTE: FOR THE RECOMMENDATIONS: Councillors Allen, Barnes-Andrews, Blatchford, Bogle, M Bunday, Cox, Denness, Evemy, Fielker, Finn, A Frampton, Y Frampton, Goodfellow, Greenhalgh, Kataria, Kaur, Kenny, Keogh, Lambert, Leggett, Letts, McCreanor, McEwing, Mintoff, Noon Paffey, Payne, Quadir, Renyard, Savage, Shields, Ugwoeme, Whitbread, Winning and T Bunday." 

 

Andrew Pope says: 

 

Andrew Pope on BBC South Today when councillor
Image: Southampton Independents (CT)

  

We have provided the councillors' names, and now we also provide web links to their councillor pages on the Council website, so that you can email them and ask them why. 

That is how our democracy is supposed to work, isn't it? 

Elected representatives must be held accountable for their decisions on behalf of the people of Southampton. Otherwise this looks like a highway robbery by Labour.

Tell us what they say. 

Tell us if they don't respond.

Southampton Independents is a voluntary organisation. It was founded by residents for residents.

We listen to residents. We act with residents.

If elected to the Council again on 7th May, I will have more powers to get answers for residents on the roads and pavements. And I will continue my campaign to get the Balfour Beatty contract CANCELLED!"

 

The Councillor web page is here. Just click the councillor's photo and you can then see their email address.

The format for Southampton councillor email addresses is "councillor" then a dot/full stop then their initial for their first name, then a dot/full stop, then their surname, then "@southampton.gov.uk".

So for the Leader of the Council and Shirley ward councillor Alex Winning (at least until Friday 8th May), it is:

councillor.a.winning@southampton.gov.uk

For Councillor Simon Letts, who was responsible for that year's budget, which the spending is part of, it is

councillor.s.letts@southampton.gov.uk 

And so on...

Let us know how you get on, by contacting us here. 

 

 

EXCLUSIVE: Council Refuses Campaigner Andrew Pope's Request to Cancel Balfour Beatty Roads and Pavement Contract - Here's Their Excuse

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.

 

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." 

 

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.

Balfour Beatty has repeatedly admitted blacklisting. In 2014, four years after the Council's contract was first let, they apologised to MPs. 

"They confirmed their firms had used the services of The Consulting Association."

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."