Without any context, it’s too simplistic to say 7 months to unblock a duct is acceptable or unacceptable, if it were a straightforward job , so the jointing chamber in the footpath containing the CBT has a duct directly to the house wall , and that duct is blocked somewhere under the person ordering service front garden , and they are not objecting to excavation or having unreasonable demands , like I want a whole new imprinted concrete driveway instead of a normal reinstatement , then 7 months is way too long .
TBH ,simple blocked ducts are normally very quickly sorted, possibly with a week , but if the blocked duct were under someone else’s property, under a private access road for example , where the householders have a right to use this access , but the access ‘road’ remains the property of the landowner ( so not adopted by the local authority ) getting permission to dig could be an issue , and it’s also possible that permission is available but the landowner wants a unrealistic sum ££ , for allowing the excavation, in those circumstances OR , quite understandably won’t be held to ransom, If in your case there are no complications like this then 7 months does seem an unreasonable amount of time.
As said , if it’s a KCI2 ( and it should be given the survey note ) the date can be moved , but obviously there is no benefit for OR pushing the date out for no reason, but if a third party is causing the delay , then unfortunately OR can’t necessarily make the person refusing access , provide permission , and alternative solutions may be required and that could take time
