Lancashire County Council also handed out more than £1m in road-related fines to utility firms for things like roadworks overrunning beyond the agreed duration
The number of roadworks carried out by utility companies on Lancashire’s highways has rocketed by 75 percent in the space of a year, new figures have revealed.
By April this year, that figure had ballooned to 7,000 – a rise that the cabinet member for highways and transport, Rupert Swarbrick, described as “unprecedented”. He was speaking during the most recent meeting of the full council, at which the details emerged.Separately, the Local Democracy Reporting Service has learned that County Hall receives around 2,000 temporary road closure requests for both planned and emergency work every year.
Unlike for pre-planned roadworks, utility companies do not require a permit upfront before beginning emergency or urgent activity on the highway. County Cllr Swarbrick told the meeting: “Very often, we will get retrospective notice [of work] and, at that point, all we can do is to ensure their site is compliant.
He said that a forum that allowed County Hall and utilities firms to co-ordinate routine works in order to “minimise disruption” worked well. The cabinet member also paid tribute to the authority’s “formidable” highways regulation team leader, who has clocked up nearly 40 years’ service with the authority in different roles and whom he said would be “fighting for the residents of Lancashire” until her final day in the job.
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