ROADWORKS are the bane of many a motorist’s life, particularly so for those who rely on their vehicles for work purposes.

So it will come as blow for people who regularly drive through Catterick Garrison to hear that the extensive works on the A6136 have been delayed.

Not to mention the inconvenience to many businesses already affected by the works.

The reason for the latest delay is because Vodafone would not commit to a date to move their cables.

This comes within weeks of the Highways Agency announcing that the seemingly everlasting roadworks on the A1 in North Yorkshire have also been delayed.

This time the blame was mostly placed on ancient relics.

Nobody is suggesting that planning a major road improvement programme is easy, but such schemes are delayed time and time again.

Indeed motorists are probably more surprised when works finish on time than they are when the seemingly inevitable announcement is made that the completion date will not be met.

Fuel and road tax raises billions for the treasury each year and presumably the people paid to design and oversee the implementation of these schemes are not scraping by on the minimum wage.

If the reason for delays, as in Catterick, can be pinpointed to a particular company then should they not be forced to take more responsibility?

Why should people trying to get to work or trying to run a small business have to suffer at the hands of a multi-billion dollar pound company that dragged its feet?