'CHAOS' on Oxford Road has prompted the Reading councillor for transport to issue an ultimatum to the companies responsible.

Traffic has been stalled for weeks by Instalcom laying broadband cables for City Fibre across several areas around Reading.

At a meeting on Tuesday, Octoer 19 , Reading Borough councillor for transport Tony Page said: “Our officers have relayed our very real dissatisfaction with the performance of City Fibre and Instalcom to date.

“We have warned them that should no improvement be seen then we could call them to a special public meeting of the SEPT committee meeting which would be reputationally damaging to them.

“Ultimately, we could seek to remove the contractor from working in Reading. I hope this option will not be necessary but it depends on a much improved performance.”

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Oxford Road Safer Neighbourhood Forum chairman Peter Bowyer described how the construction work has caused delays and blocked people’s drives and shops.

“They are a problem, absolutely,” said Mr Bowyer, whose group is one of five co-sponsored by the council and Thames Valley Police to help tackle hyper-localised issues.

“They’re disrupting the town bit by bit, gradually moving their way round. We’ve had the worst of it for the past six weeks.”

He said: “They’re never in one place for very long but the chaos they cause while they’re there is incredible.”

Mr Page added: “It’s not been very nice for the past few weeks I have to say, it’s gradually dying down now here but the rest of the town have got this to come.”

But he stressed that the end result of widespread gigabit internet is a good idea and he understood why the council is encouraging it.

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CityFibre’s city manager for Reading Stacey King said: “We are liaising with Reading Borough Council and Instalcom, our build partner in Reading, to address some concerns that have been raised about our ongoing works in the town.

“We always try to keep disruption to a minimum and we are implementing a series of additional training sessions for Instalcom’s construction team to ensure the rollout is delivered effectively and efficiently.

“As we carry out this £58m investment to deliver a town-wide full fibre network that will future-proof Reading’s digital future, we want to want to thank residents for their continued patience.”

Instalcom’s communications director Paul Alderton said: "Instalcom are working collaboratively with our client CityFibre to ensure that the installation of a new full fibre network does not cause unnecessary inconvenience to the residents of Reading.

"We are aware of the concerns that have been raised and we are working with our project management team to ensure all civils and fibre activities are undertaken with minimal disruption."