Call for roadworks crackdown

There are at least 1,100 street works per year in the UK

Some utility firms are deliberately exaggerating the time they expect roadworks to take to avoid fines, a new report claims.

The study by the RAC Foundation, published on Friday, calls for a government crackdown on the contractors who cause traffic hold-ups by carrying out ill-timed and shoddy roadworks.

The foundation says it hopes measures to tighten roadwork regulations, including increased fines for flouting them, will be included in a new Traffic Management Bill.

A recent study for the Department for Transport showed utility companies may be exaggerating the duration of roadworks by up to 50% and that resurfacing work is not up to standard.

RAC Foundation executive director Edmund King said: "This study shows that the current system is not working efficiently. We need tougher legislation to act as a catalyst for better coordination.

REPORT FINDINGS The water sector digs twice as many holes as other sectors There are an estimated 1.1 million street works each year Utilities over-estimating duration of works by up to 50% Utilities have increased time estimates to avoid charges, unchallenged by councils

"If the utility companies cannot be trusted to give honest estimates of the duration of their work then they should be charged from the first day they start digging up the road."

He said he expected the new bill to be introduced in the Queen's Speech.

'Road tsars'

The foundation says as part of the bill, locally-appointed "road tsars" will be employed to control and co-ordinate the traffic chaos caused by utility companies, as well as a number of other measures.

They include:

• Introducing a permit system where utility companies must get written permission for roadworks

• Expanding local authority power to prevent roadworks if the timing and location is inconvenient

• Charges for congestion caused by scaffolding and skips

• Increasing fines for abuse of legislation

The foundation said current laws to control disruption, introduced 12 years ago when there were only a handful of utilities, were outdated with more than 150 companies now allowed to dig up highways.

The foundation has been campaigning about disruption for six years.

New measures to tackle street works, introduced in 2001, mean local authorities are allowed to fine companies who spend too long digging up roads by up to £2,000.

A High Court decision on a test case in March means utility companies and others face massive "lane rental" charges of up to £1,000-a-day for every hole in the road in Middlesbrough and the London Borough of Camden.

Although the charging system currently only operates in the two areas, the Department for Transport is considering extending the scheme nationally.