Utilities have challenged the figures used by Kent County Council to justify the fees to be levied under the country’s first permit scheme as ‘wrong and probably illegal’.
Kent was assuming that its network manager would spend 100% of his time working on permits and the authority would need an extra 49 staff just to handle them, Les Guest, of the National Joint Utilities Group, told the HSC08 conference.
He told Surveyor: ‘I think they have worked it out on the worst case scenario, it could perhaps take that long on a really complicated permit, but the next one would probably take half the time.’
‘Permits should only have a charge related to conclusively proven costs.’ Guest claimed that the DfT had suggested that although there would be a maximum cost for utilities per permit, it was expected that most authorities would charge less.
Kent is poised to submit a finalised permit scheme to the secretary of state for her approval, involving fees of up to £240 for major works on the county’s most traffic sensitive streets – the maximum allowed.
The county council would, however, reduce these fees by 30% where utility firms commit to sharing excavation sites, or extending working hours – 24 hours, where this was desirable.
The county is also proposing fines of £500 up to £2,500 per day for works that overrun compared to the amount of time allowed by a permit Kent has issued.
Kent is proposing the scheme to satisfy its residents’ desire for improved controls, providing it with the ability to pro-actively direct where, when and how street works will be carried out.
The county will include its own road works in the permits scheme, to demonstrate parity, and will in a dry run apply them to its works first.
David Latham, Kent road works manager, speaking to Surveyor earlier, said the proposed scheme would encourage better use of road space, as residents were demanding. The fees were based upon a ‘rigorous assessment’ of the amount of work entailed.
Surveyor later put the NJUG claim to Kent Highway Services. A spokesperson said, in response: ‘We believe our fees have been accurately and carefully calculated, and we will have to justify them through a full business case to the Department for Transport when we make our application.’
The Government has said it would scrutinise all permit scheme applications to ensure that the balance of costs and benefits is correct. It will also evaluate the operation of permits after one year, to see whether any changes need to be made.
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