A Thames Water hole the size of a paving slab has put three-way temporary lights on the South Circular in Putney, shut the pavement and closed a busy bus stop, just as the working week begins.
It is an emergency application that went in on Saturday night and the works are booked until Wednesday evening so expect heavy congestion today and until mid-week. Nobody was working on site on Sunday, and the dig may well get bigger once crews arrive but as things stand, shutting down a red route for a small hole appears excessive.
Since Saturday night, the barriers outside the Velosport shop on Upper Richmond Road, opposite the Post Office, have sent everyone on foot off the pavement and into a fenced lane in the road with a yellow ramp at the kerb. The bus stop beside the hole is coned off – and it’s a a very busy one for people going to Putney station – and signs warn drivers of single-file traffic.
A reader who reported the works said queues at the lights were building “even on a Sunday”, and fears yet more traffic gridlock this morning.
Transport for London (TfL), not Wandsworth Council, is in charge here. This stretch of the A205 is a red route, one of the main roads TfL runs, and TfL grants the permits for works on it and sets the conditions.
Efforts to find out what the problem is have proved fruitless. The reader rang the number on Thames Water’s notice twice and found no way to talk about the site. The council’s helpline was closed on Sunday. “I just don’t understand how they can block the south circular road so easily and unnecessarily,” our reader noted.
The hole and roadworks rules
The hole is currently 64cm across, about the size of a single paving slab, in a pavement about 3m wide. It sits about 71cm from the shopfronts, leaving about 1.68m clear between its edge and the kerb; more than enough for pedestrians. And it is the push of pedestrians into the road that has made the traffic lights necessary.
The blue fencing around the site covers more than the hole: a spoil heap is banked against a litter bin, along with a stack of spare barriers, and a pedestrian trench cover, the kind laid over a hole so people can walk across it, propped unused against the bin.
The reader, who looked at the site himself, reckons the crew could have tidied up and “cordoned off the hole with barriers but letting people walk past easily”. He’s right and we will have to see how much the works expand by today to see whether the disruption is justified.
We asked Thames Water what fault it is fixing, why it needed the whole pavement and three-way lights, and whether it considered simply covering the hole so people could walk past. We asked TfL whether it agreed to the closure and the lights, and whether it has inspected the site.
TfL has said it will reply later today; Thames Water had not responded by the time of publication. Their answers will be added to this story when they arrive.
What the rules say
Government safety rules for street works tell crews to keep people on the pavement “if at all possible”, ideally with at least 1.5m to walk along, and to send them into the road only when that cannot be done safely. They also routinely allow boards to be laid across a hole to keep a path open.
Over the weekend, before any barriers, the strip beside the hole was wider than that 1.5m. Unless the excavation takes up more of the pavement, Thames Water faving having its application refused once TfL takes a close look, with potential fines for disruption.
The whole pavement is closed and pedestrians walk in the road.
On Sunday afternoon the permit for the works remains an application, rather than approved works. Its record on the roadworks website one.network had not been updated since it was opened on Saturday night. That is allowed if this is an emergency: utilities can dig first and apply afterwards, and for a job started after 4.30pm the application only has to reach the road authority by 10am the next day.
TfL can fine a utility £240 for breaking the conditions on a permit and £1,000 for working without one. If works run past their booked end, it can charge for every extra day, and since January that includes weekends and bank holidays.
TfL has taken Thames Water to court before. In 2021 it prosecuted the company over four street works offences from 2019, and Thames Water was fined £100,000. One of the sites was West Hill in Wandsworth, where TfL said the company had failed to sign, light and guard its works properly or give people walking and cycling an adequate route past. It is possible that that case has led Thames Water to swing the other way – and ensure that pedestrians are over-compensated for as a way to avoid future fines.
In January Thames Water missed its own repair deadline on Olivette Street, and on Roehampton Lane temporary lights stayed in place through a weekend after the emergency repair was done.
Wandsworth Council’s Cabinet decides this evening whether to take forward a lane rental scheme, which would let the council charge utilities for occupying its busiest roads at the busiest times, with charging from May 2027. It would not cover these works: the scheme applies to what the council’s paper calls “a proportion of its road network”, and Upper Richmond Road is TfL’s.
Once the works finish, Thames Water must tell TfL within two hours that the pavement is open again. If the three-way lights are still on the South Circular after 9.54pm on Wednesday, TfL can start charging for every extra day.
How to check roadworks on your street
Look for the notice on the barriers. On Upper Richmond Road it gives the permit number MU70201334255-0001.
Search that number on one.network to see who is doing the work, the booked dates, the type of traffic control and which authority is responsible.
Red lines at the kerb mean a TfL road. Report problems on red routes through TfL Street Care. Other roads in the borough are Wandsworth Council’s.
Quote the permit number, and send a photo showing how much space is fenced off and whether anyone is working.
For Thames Water works, the number printed on the notice is 0800 316 9800.
