Hampshire County Council considers adopting highways disruption charging (lane rental) scheme outlined by Department for Transport

THE county council may start charging firms, and its own highways department, up to £2,500 per day for causing excessive delays working on the Forest’s highways.

An executive authority member will decide on Tuesday 28th January whether to continue investigating plans to implement a highways disruption charging, or “lane rental”, scheme for the county.

A council officer’s report said the Department for Transport has found disruption charging has “proven to be effective” for other highways authorities’ management of their road networks.

A graphic presented to the council shows most major Forest routes are likely to be part of the scheme, including the A35, A36, the A326, A337 and B3056.

Describing how the scheme would work, officers said: “All works on a route covered by the scheme will attract a daily charge, and it is important to note that this must include the county council’s own highway works.

“The charge encourages work to be completed as quickly as possible, thereby reducing the length of time that a chargeable route will be exposed to traffic disruption.

“Discounts to the daily charge are applied for working outside peak times or employing methods that reduce overall traffic disruption.”

The charges would apply to the council’s own highways engineers as well as firms and other bodies who work on highways, including Southern Water and gas companies.

The officers continued: “The purpose of a disruption charging scheme…is to encourage any roadworks on the most congested and strategic routes to be expedited with minimum impact on moving traffic.

“Reducing traffic congestion assists the county council in executing its primary duties (to manage road networks).

“Experience from existing schemes run by other neighbouring county councils shows that works promoters significantly alter their working practices to avoid or reduce the charges.”

The spokesperson said the council receives a “significant” amount of customer enquiries and complaints about disruption caused by road works “often delivered by third parties” so the new charging scheme would “benefit residents and road users” in Hampshire.

If given the go-ahead, the charge would be levied alongside the council’s existing permit, with works promoters being charged a rental fee of up to £2,500 per day, including weekends and bank holidays.

Council officers said the income from disruption charging would cover the “reasonable” operating costs of the scheme, with any surplus being ring-fenced to reduce disruption and other adverse effects caused by road works.

Surplus funding could also go towards reducing traffic congestion but “should not be used” for repairing potholes.

“There is no guarantee that the county council will recover any funds, beyond its own reasonable operating costs, from the disruption charging scheme pot for its own schemes,” officers added.

Members of the council’s executive committee for universal services will discuss the scheme next Tuesday (28th) afternoon.

Officers have recommended the executive member for highways and waste Cllr Lulu Bowerman notes the progress on developing the charging project, the potential cost to the county council, and the projected timeline for developing and implementing the scheme.

It was also recommended the executive member agrees to continue the development of a draft disruption charging scheme for formal consultation in the summer. The council said final recommendations over the scheme would be developed before formal approval is sought from the Department for Transport.

The council said the aim would then be for the scheme to become operational in 2026.