The Street works: fines and lane rental surplus funds consultation paper can be found here, and its well worth keeping an eye on how this goes.
Whilst the government does agree its essential that utilities can carry out important maintenance work, the issue is the vast amount of street works that goes on the roads, cost the economy around £4bn due to road congestion.
Therefore one of the proposals is to extend the £10,000 per day for overrun street works (it currently only applies to weekdays) to include weekends and bank holidays, to deter working on the busiest days for travel.
It also proposes an increase to the FPN charges, which have not risen since 2007. The government proposes to increase the charge in order to deter and increase compliance with street works regulations. As according to the paper ‘Many authorities report that utilities find it easier to pay a discounted FPN charge as a ‘cost of doing business’, rather than ensuring their works comply with regulations.’
The Department for Transport claims that its proposals could not only reduce congestion for but also generate “up to” £10m a year extra for resurfacing roads. Which as we all know from the state of the roads is much needed.
What are your thoughts on the changes?
If you have any comments, or need any help with your NRSWA street works training or need a street works refresher, please do not hesitate to call us on 0333 301 0226 or at [email protected].
