Utilities group rejects London permit scheme

10 June 2009

The proposed London permit scheme to improve street and highway works co-ordination fails to meet the legal requirements set by Parliament and therefore should not be approved, according to utilities.

The National Joint Utilities Group’s (NJUG) formal response to the Transport for London (TfL)/London borough’s second application to run a permit scheme in the capital, states that the document fails to demonstrate any process to assess its main aim of reducing congestion.

This comes after the 17 boroughs and TfL re-drafted the application to address civil servants’ concern that the July 2008 submission had not shown that permits would ‘deliver worthwhile benefits’ (Surveyor, 19 March 2009).

Dave Turnbull, NJUG legal director, told Surveyor: ‘I can’t see how the secretary of state can approve this application as it stands. The regulations, made by parliament, clearly state that any permit scheme must include a process to measure its effectiveness.’
The application includes key performance indicators, but these relate to the number of permits approved and the number of conditions attached, rather than to tracking the impact of the scheme on congestion.

Turnbull acknowledged that the requirement was ‘a very hard test to pass,’ but insisted: ‘Just because it’s difficult, that doesn’t mean it should be discarded. The costs for utilities and highway authorities are just too great’ – £37.7M each year.
NJUG said it supported the principle of permits but was concerned that the benefits might not outweigh the costs, particularly given that permits would be required on all categories of street.

But the promoters of the scheme say permits would reduce traffic delays, worth £49M, by reducing disruption by 10%. Traffic authorities would direct the timing of works, specify the road space and traffic management to be used, or refuse applications that would cause unacceptable disruption.

NJUG also protested that TfL and the boroughs have no plans for ‘shadow charging’ to demonstrate parity of treatment for utilities’ and councils’ works, and questioned how the fees had been arrived at.

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