Utility firms ‘taking the mickey’ with temporary traffic lights in Lancashire amid staggering number of roadworks

That is the call from county councillors who have asked the government to increase the charges local authorities are allowed to impose on water, power and telecoms firms when their roadworks last longer than they said they would.

It comes as figures obtained by the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) reveal 37,500 sets of highway works were carried out in the Lancashire County Council area – which excludes Blackpool and Blackburn with Darwen - in the space of just 12 months.

Of those jobs - undertaken between April 2023 and March last year - 189 of them over-ran and attracted fines from Lancashire County Council totalling almost £343,000.

Separately, 1,337 fixed penalty notices were issued - amounting to £170,000 - for offences including breaches of the permit for the work, issued by County Hall, which occurred on 413 occasions - or failing to obtain such permission in the first place, which happened 97 times.

However, the majority of those penalty charges - 580 - were levied in instances where the utility firms had failed to give notice that their roadworks would be “unreasonably delayed”. A further 247 fines were issued for the failure to advise highways bosses that works had been completed.

Bringing a notice of a motion to a meeting of the full council, County Cllr Ash Sutcliffe - who represents the Pendle Central division - said even the phrase "temporary traffic lights” made drivers “shudder”.

Calling for the county council’s chief executive to write to the government requesting an increase in the charges that can be levied for over-running works, he said: “We must have the power to hold companies to account and get our roads moving again as soon as possible.

“I’m sure that I’m not the only [councillor] who’s had comments from residents [saying] there are traffic lights and cones [in the road, but nobody is] working. They’re not working on a Saturday and Sunday…on a Bank Holiday Monday…[or of] an evening,” County Cllr Sutcliffe added.

Under current legislation, the maximum fines for roadworks exceeding their agreed finish date vary according to the significance of the route on which they are taking place - from £250 per day up to £10,000 per day for the longest over-runs on the busiest roads.

However, they do not apply at weekends or on bank holidays - and the county council’s lead member for highways, Scott Smith, said some permit breaches by utility companies can result in fixed penalty notices of as little as £80.

“To multi-billion pound companies…it barely even registers as petty cash - and the idea that it acts as a deterrent to bad behaviour on our roads is for the birds.

“This is not about making it difficult for contractors to do their work efficiently. We all need electricity, gas, water and broadband - and upgrades to those utilities often make a real difference to the quality of our lives.

“But the level of disruption currently taking pace on roads across Lancashire is simply too high,” County Cllr Smith said.

He added that the work of County Hall’s highways officers to liaise with utility companies about pre-planned roadworks did much to ensure they ran smoothly. However, "the bulk of the disruption”, members were told, related to the 20 percent of works carried out in any one year which are classed as urgent or an emergency.

“The truth is that the tools at [the county council’s] disposal are not enough to make a real difference to the havoc which is all too regularly wreaked on the residents we serve,” County Cllr Smith claimed.

The motion – which stressed that any increase in fines must not be passed on to households in their utility bills - was passed with cross-party support.

‘POUR THE MONEY INTO POTHOLE REPAIRS’

Labour opposition group member John Fillis amended the originally-proposed Conservative motion to insert the caveat that any increase in income from a hike in fines for utility firms must be used “specifically to fix potholes” across the county.

The move was accepted by County Cllr Sutcliffe, but further amended by the ruling Tory group to state that any extra cash would also be used, more generally, "to improve highways”. County Cllr Smith said that stipulation was necessary in order to reflect the fact the money currently generated by penalty charges for over-running works is already used for a range of road improvement measures, pothole repairs included.

However, Morecambe South member Charlie Edwards cautioned against seeking a windfall from increased fines - saying that would be to miss the point of raising them.

“The reason why we are asking for these penalties to be increased is not as a cash cow...but actually to offer a deterrent [to dissuade firms from] causing [problems] in the first place.

“These utility companies take the mickey far too often on our highways and...we should have every weapon in our arsenal to deter them from doing this in the first place,” County Cllr Edwards said.

Nationally, figures for 2022/23 show the gas sector received the most roadworks-related fixed penalty notices as a percentage of the total jobs undertaken.

However, County Cllr Edwards added that it was also incumbent on the county council's own highway repair teams to carry out the works they do in a timely manner so as to cause as little disruption as possible.