Roadworker abuse in Southampton reaches new high

Balfour Beatty Living Places in conjunction with Southampton City Council are collectively making a stand to stop roadworker abuse

Roadworkers in Southampton are being verbally abused, and physically threatened by people throwing objects at them, including barriers and cones as well as disgruntled drivers choosing to mount the pavement in order to avoid road closures.

In a 2023 survey by the Highways Service Partnership, the Southampton team reported that half of staff have reported a case of abuse in the last 12 months with a further 58% having been abused at least monthly.

Brenton McClean, a Reactive Maintenance Supervisor in Southampton, has experienced a torrent of abuse throughout his career: "I’ve just become hardened to it now and accepted it’s part of the job, which I shouldn’t have to. In one situation a man wanted to get through a road closure, he attacked my colleague, hitting him with a baseball bat, me and four or five of my other colleagues had to restrain him whilst we waited for the police to arrive." He recalled "it was just awful, it wouldn’t happen outside of other people’s work but when we’ve got our hi-vis on we literally become a target."

Balfour Beatty Living Places Contract Director Brian Hammersley stated: "No-one should come to work expecting to be abused, we view the safety and welfare of all our staff as our priority and we will not tolerate any verbal or physical attacks against them. Roadworkers are a workforce who are no different to anyone else; we have families, friends, and feelings, just like anyone else."

Councillor Eamonn Keogh, Cabinet Member for Environment and Transport commented: "Balfour Beatty Living Places are providing us all with safer roads to assist pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles; it’s disturbing to hear that their workforce is being targeted. We as a council fully support a zero tolerance policy towards stopping any abuse towards all roadworkers and frontline workers."

If you witness any road workers being subjected to threatening behaviour, please report it to the Police on 999 or 101.

Please see our roadworker abuse video on You Tube where Brenton McClean from Balfour Beatty Living Places describes some of his first hand examples of roadworker abuse: