31st March 2008
Utility Companies Fear ETON Mess
Late delivery of ETON Specifications by the DfT could impact Authorities and Utilities alike
With less than twenty four hours to go before the national roll-out of the Traffic Management Act (TMA), utility companies face challenges in delivering accurate noticing due to the Government’s failure in delivering the 4th version of Electronic Transfer of Notices (ETON) technical specifications to system developers. The National Joint Utilities Group (NJUG) - the UK’s trade association representing utilities involved in street works – has serious concerns about the robustness of the TMA.
ETON is the system which is used by utility companies to notify Local Authorities about works to be carried out in the streets to improve co-ordination. ETON 4 is the latest version of the notice management system which was revised as a result of the TMA.
NJUG welcomes the aims of the TMA and works with the Government and Local Authorities to ensure that the TMA regulations are reasonable, workable and affordable. However, the complex nature of these regulations means that they must be tested properly before they go live.
Originally, the Department for Transport (DfT) was to allow nine months for implementation of the IT systems necessary to underpin the smooth delivery of the TMA. This meant six months for ETON developers to update their software and applications, followed by a further three months to allow testing and the complex work of integrating the new system with existing work management systems. However, late delivery of the final ETON technical specification by the DfT to system developers has not only resulted in them compressing their plans, but also left both authorities and utility companies with insufficient time to test and integrate in their usually rigorous way.
NJUG has voiced concerns that these latter stages have been rushed and now understand that many authorities and utility companies are indicating that they will not be able to go live and implement ETON 4 on 1st April.
In January 2008, NJUG suggested to the DfT that the ‘go live’ date should be reconsidered to ensure the maximum number of organisations were ready. However, in February the DfT and the Highways Authorities and Utilities Committee (HAUC UK) reviewed the number of organisations who indicated that they would be ready, and determined that there was no need to revise the date.
NJUG believes that this major task has been under-estimated and as the deadline approaches, more and more authorities and utility companies recognise that they may not be able to meet the challenging deadline. This could lead to confusion and poor communications as systems may not be able to transfer essential data as expected. This will result in poor coordination and increased disruption on the streets – precisely what the TMA seeks to avoid.
Whilst NJUG members are doing everything possible to be ready for the 1st April, it is equally important – if not more important – to have well managed implementation of the Act rather than a high risk implementation that may fail.
Les Guest, a Director at NJUG said, “At the moment we are on course for 1st April following a stringent testing programme and collaboration with other utility companies and ETON developers. However, if we discover just one more major fault, it will put the whole delivery at risk.”
He added, “The aggressive timescale means that many will have to choose between operating ETON 3 for all authorities or ETON 4 for all authorities, not a mixture. We cannot remove this option in time for 1st April, as it would mean jeopardising other data validation which would put the quality of our notice data at risk. In essence, if an authority moves to ETON 4 on 1st April, transactions ought to be problem free, however, if they are not able to, and remain on ETON 3, then all notice information may need to be typed in manually by authority staff.”
-Ends-
Notes to the Editor:
For further editorial information or to arrange an interview please contact pressoffice@njug.org.uk or telephone 020 7609 1900.
About The National Joint Utilies Group (NJUG)
The National Joint Utilities Group (NJUG) is the UK industry association representing utilities on street works issues. Including members through trade associations, NJUG represents forty-one utility companies. Its focus is on promoting safety, quality and sustainability of street works, alongside the sharing of best practice, and working together with stakeholders to minimise disruption. NJUG is also the utility arm of the Highway Authorities and Utilities Committee, HAUC(UK), working collaboratively with local authorities to better standards of road and street works in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
Our members include the Energy Networks Association (representing electricity and gas companies), Water UK (representing water companies), National Grid, BT, Cable and Wireless, Virgin Media and THUS plc. We also have five Associate Members – contractors Balfour Beatty, Skanska McNicholas, Clancy Docwra, Morrison, Morgan Est and NACAP.
We all rely on gas, electricity, water and telecommunications being delivered to our homes and businesses and being available all of the time. To maintain that level of reliability requires major asset investment programmes and therefore utilities to carry out works in the street. But we recognise the need to further improve co-ordination of works to continue to reduce the regrettable disruption that our essential works sometimes cause.
Utilities undertake essential street works for four main reasons – safety, security of supply, to connect or enhance consumer supply, or to divert apparatus to facilitate transport or urban regeneration schemes.