Roads minister Richard Holden has promised to chase down every local authority without a lane rental scheme, as part of a ‘war’ on potholes and those who cause them.
Lane rental schemes allow highway authorities to charge utility companies and themselves fees for digging up their busiest roads at the busiest times. The Government has said that as part of its Plan for Drivers it will consult on requiring councils with such schemes to use at least 50% of any surplus on pothole repairs or resurfacing.
Speaking to a highways industry audience, Mr Holden said ‘We’re taking action to fix roads faster and more efficiently, helping more local authorities establish lane rental schemes and creating digital traffic regulation orders, the system through which rules using paper and ink has to become fit for a digital age.
‘If local authorities that you know or you are working for or working in partnership with do not have a lane rental scheme, get one now because I’m going to chase down every local authority which hasn’t got or isn't planning one.’
On the subject of potholes, Mr Burden said: ‘As part of our resurfacing investment, we will wage a war on them and those who cause them, which is another reason to get a lane rental scheme for every local authority in the country as soon as possible.'
Mr Holden said: ‘It is easy to forget that so much of our personal freedoms are contingent on the upkeep of our nation’s greatest economic asset – our road network.
‘All 245,000 miles of it, connecting every home, every business and every community in the country. We rely on them constantly. Our task is to make this national asset fit for the future and to make journeys easier and safer for all.’
Mr Holden said the government will spend an additional £8.3bn on road resurfacing across the country over the next decade.
He said this was ‘nearly double our current spending’, although it may represent a far smaller real-terms rise. Although central government currently provides nearly £1bn a year capital funding to English highway authorities, this figure fell during the first year of the current Parliament and was then frozen.
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