LA changes delay civils

Local authority roadwork will be blighted for five years by the latest local government reorganisation, warned the County Surveyors Society this week.

Contractors working in Wales - where the reorganisation has taken place - are already feeling the effects.

Government plans to reorganise local authorities into smaller unitary authorities will slow the flow of local road and maintenance work while the changes take place.

The delay will be yet another in a series of blows to civils contractors who rely heavily on local authority contracts to maintain turnover.

CCS president, Mike Kendricks, told CJ: 'It is an historical fact. The same thing happened in the last council reorganisations in 1974 and 1986. All construction programmes are on a long time scale of five to seven years. The trend is for the outgoing authorities to put things on hold and the new authorities to scrap the existing plans which results in a general downturn in output.'

The FCEC echoed Kendricks fears this week. 'Any client side reorganisation creates a workload hiatus,' said FCEC spokesman Jim Turner. 'We are already seeing it in Wales where the process has begun. The volume of work is just not what it used to be.'

Unitary authorities were set up in Scotland and Wales last December. Similar changes will be introduced in England later this year.

But the FCEC says contractors should try to ameliorate the effects of the changes. 'Contractors have got to get close to those authorities and meet the new shadow authorities and find out how they can help make the transition that much smoother,' said Turner.

Contractors are already concerned about the amount and quality of work coming out from councils, and have complained that projects are let to favour direct labour organisations and contract terms are too onerous.