4000 Holes in Blackburn, Lancashire Beatles 1967

Urgent and decisive action is needed to stop chaos caused by uncoordinated and over-running road works dug by more than 200 utility companies, according to the RAC Foundation, as yet another consultation on streetworks is issued.

Utility companies now claim they are digging up 2.4 million holes per year. Figures released in the new Government consultation show that the cost of congestion of a previously estimated 1.1 million holes came out at £4.3 billion.

The Foundation’s executive director, Edmund King, will highlight some of the problems in Channel 4’s Dispatches “Who’s digging up our roads?” which will be broadcast at 9pm on Thursday 19 October 2006.

The RAC Foundation has been running a campaign for years to try to reduce the chaos caused by long drawn out and un-coordinated roadworks.

Despite legislation in the 1991 New Roads and Streetworks Act and 2004 Traffic Management Act many of the measures meant to improve the situation will not be in place until late 2007.

The RAC Foundation has concerns about the current consultation as it has already been agreed that restrictions on digging up the roads will not apply to all roads. A and B roads will not be automatically deemed “Traffic Sensitive”. This means that street authorities will have to hold consultations to justify that these streets are traffic sensitive if they want to control streetworks. The Foundation believes that this loophole will mean that much disruptive work will merely be shifted to A and B roads.

The Foundation has also warned that fines imposed on companies who dig up our roads must not just be passed on to the consumer. Stricter financial penalties are needed to improve the speed and performance of utility and telecoms companies as the only way to minimise the £4.3 billion pounds worth of delays suffered each year by road users. The consultation talks of maximum fines of £2,500 per day.

But the Foundation has demanded that the utilities regulators’ investigate any price rises and monitor the industry to ensure that the costs incurred from fines for overstaying the agreed period of works or "lane rental" charges are not simply passed to customers.

RAC Foundation states that road users want:

Better planning and co-ordination
Someone to take responsibility
Realistic schedules and prompt completion of work
Timely information and signed diversions

Companies that abuse the system and create unnecessary delay to be held to account.

Most road users are confused and despair about who is responsible for the chaos caused when the same stretch of highway is constantly dug up by the multitude of companies and utilities allowed to do so.

Edmund King, executive director of the RAC Foundation, said: “It does seem ridiculous that mankind had the will and expertise to get a man on the moon 37 years ago, yet today we don’t seem able to co-ordinate road works. Coordination of streetworks is not rocket science.

“This is not a new problem. John Lennon spotted a newspaper headline “4,000 holes in Blackburn, Lancashire” in 1967 and added the lyric to “A day in the life”.

"When fully implemented the Traffic Management Act should increase the powers of local authorities in England and Wales to pro-actively manage road works, apply conditions and specify start and finish dates. It can increase the levels of fines available to them for the contravention of safety regulations, improve their ability to order re-surfacing work and fine those companies who abuse the system. We need this introduced with urgency.”