Permit scheme applications ‘back on track’ say boroughs

15 October 2008

The London traffic authorities applying to run a permit scheme to increase control over street and road works this week claimed the application was back on track.

As Surveyor reported last week, the Government had questioned whether or not the London permit scheme ‘is likely to deliver worthwhile benefits’, in comments on the application by 14 boroughs and Transport for London.

The boroughs wanted clarification on the questions that the Department for Transport was asking, so sought, and obtained a meeting, held last Friday. Co-chair of the London permit group, Helena Kakouratos, told Surveyor it had been ‘a productive and helpful meeting’. She was now confident the scheme could be operated ‘in early 2009’.

TfL transport commissioner, Peter Hendy, had expressed fears that a fresh application would be required, and a final DfT approval for the permit scheme might not be granted until April 2010 (Surveyor, 9 October).

Kakouratos’s confidence that the scheme could start in 2009 corresponded with the timetable demanded by London mayor Boris Johnson, who had condemned the DfT’s ‘shilly-shallying’. Johnson views the scheme as crucial to his objective of reducing journey time delays.

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