UTILITY repairs and subsequent roadworks are a fact of life, but it defies belief that Thames Water did an inadequate job in Botley Road that will have to be done again.

It is effectively getting away without penalty because it originally applied for a five-day window for the work.

It then and said it could do it in an afternoon, but that overran into yesterday’s rush hour, with commuters suffering the impact.

Now we learn the road materials used are not up to scratch, so it has to be done again.

Thames Water justifies wringing more cash out of customers because of the infrastructure work it needs to do, so maybe inflation-busting bills would be lighter if it did things properly the first time around.