The Department for Transport has responded ‘very positively’ to Kent County Council’s application to run a permit scheme to improve street and highway work co-ordination.
Kent submitted the first application to the DfT last month, following three consultations and comments from the National Joint Utilities Group that permits should be focused on the busiest parts of the network (Surveyor, 21 August 2008).
The county is now preparing for a July start-date for what would be the country’s first permit scheme for the control of works, after the DfT advised that it would take four months to review the scheme and make a decision.
Kent intends to implement an operational permit scheme for the county’s highway works by May, so that officers will already have experience of monitoring permit applications –although not of processing fees or fixed-penalty notices – before July.
Lloyd Holliday, Kent’s network performance manager, said: ‘The project is now delivering the building and testing of IT systems, and focusing on recruitment and training of the new organisation.’
The county’s permit scheme is designed to improve safety and protect the structure of the street and integrity of the apparatus, as well as reduce disruption and inconvenience caused to people using streets.
Fresh proposals for a London permit scheme to be run by 17 boroughs and Transport for London are due to be launched for consultation shortly, with a view to introducing the scheme in the autumn.
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