WITH the council having received more than 27,000 roadworks notices in the 12 months to June alone, disruption over the coming years is inevitable.

However, the magnitude of that disruption is not inevitable, so long as rather a lot of people make certain to do their jobs properly.

The people of this borough are rightly sick and tired of the chaos which has been the overwhelming characteristic of roadworks here for many years.

On more occasions than anybody cares to remember, the public have stoically endured diversions while a section of the highway was excavated by some utility, only for some other utility to pop up immediately with a request to repeat the process because it wanted to repair something in precisely the same place.

If this trend continues throughout the thousands of projects due in the coming years, we might as well abandon the borough en masse before it grinds to a complete halt.

On the other hand, a great deal of misery will be avoided if the relevant executives get together now and work out a strategy - or else work out a far better one than they’ve employed so far.

We suggest they begin by gathering and sharing every known map showing underground pipes, cables, drains and conduits.

They should then arrange to have their planned repairs grouped not according to utility but according to location and necessary date for work to commence.

We daresay some of our readers will accuse us of stating the glaringly obvious by urging what is nothing more than elementary common sense. That accusation is well-founded, but we stand by what we say as common sense has so far been somewhat lacking.

There is no excuse for utilities turning inconvenience into unnecessary strife.