Background

At the moment, utility companies’ works that take place on the public highway (roads, footpaths, cycle paths and verges) must comply with the requirements of the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991 (NRSWA). This compliance is monitored by the local authority. This covers the administration, co-ordination and physical undertaking of the works on site.

From 1 April 2008 a new piece of legislation, the Traffic Management Act 2004,   came into force. The Traffic Management Act (TMA)will help tackle congestion and reduce disruption on the road network. The TMA has several parts, but the key section for connections purposes covers street works activity. This part of the TMA will increase the requirements on the administration side of street works, and give further powers to local authorities for them to fulfil their duties under the TMA.

Key Changes

There are some key changes that you need to be aware of if any of the work we must carry out to deliver your connections takes place on the public highway or on roads, footpaths etc, that will become adopted by the local authority.

Timescales

We must now issue notice periods to local authorities before commencing our work. The notice period ranges from 3 working days to 3 months depending on the scale of the work.

Key Points

• The duration of works includes all works on site, ie setting up, excavating, installation of utility connections, reinstatement and clearing up.
• The forward notices can only be issued to the local authority once we have received your acceptance of our quotation.
• If your development means that we will need to work in more than one street, the TMA requires that we serve one notice per street.
• If changes to works are needed following acceptance, we need to know as quickly as possible to liaise with the local authority in order to deliver your connections.
• Local authorities will have more powers to enforce compliance with the TMA requirements.

Local Authority powers

The powers of local authorities have been increased to aid coordination of street works and to reduce disruption. Some of these powers may affect the delivery of utility connections to your development, so you need to be aware of them.

• Power to give directions as to placing of new apparatus – A local authority can, on the grounds of excessive traffic disruption, direct us not to lay new equipment in a given street. We will have to decide on a viable alternative route, and this may increase the costs to you.
• Restrictions following other works – If other works have occurred in a given street, eg resurfacing, the local authority can impose an embargo on further works of up to five years. Fortunately, new customer connections are exempt from the full restriction, and instead will need to wait 20 working days from completion of the previous works before the connections works can begin.

Introduction of a permit scheme

In order to help meet their ‘Network Management Duty’, local authorities can opt to become ‘Permit Scheme Operators’ under the TMA.

The fundamental difference between a Permit Scheme and the existing Noticing system is that when we apply for a permit, we are booking time on the highway. The local authority has to approve our application and can set conditions on the works. The timescale for forward notice periods for permits and categories of permits is the same as those in the table above. However, there will be a charge for the permits. The permit fee will be made clear within the quotation we provide to you, and will be chargeable to you.

If your requirements change following approval of a permit, we can request a variation. However, the local authority will make a charge for permit variations that we will have to pass on to you. If you choose us to deliver your electricity, gas and water connections there will be opportunities to reduce the permit fees if we can manage the works under a ‘trench sharing’ agreement.

Each local authority can decide whether or not to become a ‘Permit Scheme Operator’, and can also decide the scope of its permit scheme, and the level of its permit fees. Therefore we cannot give you a list of fees.

Summary

• The Traffic Management Act comes into effect on 1 April 2008.
• This includes new longer forward notice periods and the new powers outlined above.
• There will be less flexibility around work dates and durations, so it is important to let us know as soon as you can about potential sites. Then we can plan works carefully and provide accurate information.
• We will work with you and liaise with the local authorities to deliver your utility connections.
• Local authorities are still evaluating whether to opt to be Permit Scheme Operators, and the scope and fee levels in their schemes. They can choose to do this at any time from 1 April 2008 onwards.
• Further detail about the Traffic Management Act can be found at the Department for Transport’s website.