Ministers have launched a consultation on plans for highway authorities to use at least half of lane rental scheme surpluses for road repairs, claiming that this could generate ‘up to’ £100m.
The Department for Transport is seeking to extend the current £10,000 per day fine for overrunning street works into weekends and bank holidays and increase other fines.
Based on plans first announced in the Plan for Drivers last autumn, the consultation also includes proposals to direct at least 50% of surplus cash from lane rental schemes to be used to improve roads and repair potholes.
Lane rental schemes allow highway authorities to charge companies for the time that street and road works occupy their busiest routes.
However, such schemes only cover a tiny fraction of the network and only two new councils have launched such schemes since ministers announced a planned national roll-out six years ago.
Following the original successful pilots from Transport for London and Kent, only Surrey and West Sussex currently operate lane rental. The schemes cover less than 5% of London's road network and between 5% and 7% elsewhere.
Nonetheless, the DfT said its plans could generate ‘up to’ £100m extra over 10 years to resurface roads while helping tackle congestion.
Roads minister Guy Opperman launched the consultation as part of National Pothole Day. The DfT said the plans would prevent utility companies from letting roadworks overrun and clogging up traffic as a result.
Ministers first announced plans for a national lane rental roll-out in February 2018. Last autumn, the then roads minister, Richard Holden, promised to ‘chase down’ every local authority without a lane rental scheme, indicating a degree of frustration at the slow pace of the roll-out.
Under the more common permitting schemes, utility companies can be fined £10,000 per day fine for overrunning street works, but only on working days.
The consultation seeks to extend this into weekends and bank holidays, as well as doubling fines for companies who breach conditions, from £500 up to a maximum of £1,000.
Mr Opperman said: ‘We will seek to massively increase fines for companies that breach conditions and fine works that overrun into weekends and bank holidays, while making the rental for such works help generate up to an extra £100m to improve local roads.’
The announcement received a lukewarm reception from Street Works UK chief executive Clive Bairstow, who said: ‘Utilities perform a vital role in connecting households, working to the highest standards, whilst complying with rigorous inspections to ensure works are high quality and lasting.
‘We look forward to engaging constructively with Government throughout this consultation, representing our members and the wider industry, to ensure both utilities and local authorities can deliver infrastructure works whilst giving customers and road users the speed of delivery, lack of congestion, and transparency they expect.’
The DfT also confirmed plans to make all temporary, experimental or permanent traffic regulation orders (TROs) digital.
