Council pledging action to reduce roadwork disruption across Staffordshire
Highways chiefs in Staffordshire have pledged to clamp down on roadwork disruption after complaints from residents and businesses.
The county council's new roads cabinet member Councillor Peter Mason has written to residents to outline a series of proposals to change how much notice is given by the authority, contractors and utility companies in an effort to give affected communities a break.
The Reform UK member said the move follows "lots of discussion on road repairs and utility works taking place across the county and the impact on daily routines".
"There are a high number of repairs currently active and planned, particularly in some of our towns."
His letter stated: "For the next three months we will refrain from adding new works to main roads in heavily disrupted areas unless it can be shown that it will not further impact these routes. This means some works will be delayed.
"Emergency works such as water or gas leaks will still go ahead as these cannot be stopped. The authority will be asking utility companies to reduce how long they take in repairing them. In addition specific urgent repair works to Corporation Street in Stafford has been approved to be completed in August during the school holidays."
Councillor Mason explained that any council's ability to control how and when such work carried out is limited by Government legislation which permits highway, utility and third-party access to the infrastructure networks.
For emergency works no notice or permission is required before starting, for minor works of up to three days a minimum of three-day notice is required, standard works of up to 10 days a minimum of10 day notice is required, for major works 12 weeks' notice is required.
"Despite these timelines, we believe we have a case to amend or reject requests to carry out work when the network is unable to accommodate this work in some areas. We will propose a 12-week period between access requests and commencement for any future planned works. For emergency works, we will permit a 48-hour window initially and use fines to encourage compliance.
" We will also seek to work with our district and borough councils which have responsibility for noise pollution to enable an extension of working hours in some circumstances to7am-11pm, seven days a week, and shorten the duration of active sites.
"The ultimate solution to these issues requires a revision of the current legislation to rebalance the powers more in favour of councils and by doing so the users of the network. This is for central Government to action,and I will be lobbying and seeking the support of all Staffordshire MPs to take this forward and to get the changes needed," Councillor Mason stated.
Works include roadworks in Stafford includes a one-way traffic order from Riverway to the Queensville Roundabout for carriageway and footway surfacing, drainage repairs,upgrading of the existing traffic signal and improvements to pedestrian crossings, railway bridge strengthening and cycleway improvements. Traffic will be able to travel out of town on the A34, but motorists driving north towards the town centre will be diverted via Silkmore Lane, Rickerscote and Rising Brook. This scheme expected to be completed late October.
