SIR – The contents of Clive Smith’s letter “All these roadworks? Don’t blame council” intrigued me as I was under the impression there was legislation about the co-ordination of such works.
On the internet I found the ‘Code of Practice (3rd Edition) for the Co-ordination of Street Works and Works for Road Purposes and Related Matters’ published by the Department for Transport. Below are some pertinent points: 1. The most important elements in the legislation (New Roads and Street Works Act 1991) are the duty of a highway authority to coordinate all works in the highway (section 59); and the duty of undertakers to cooperate (section 60).
2. The co-ordination objectives are to ensure safety and to minimise inconvenience to people using a road.
3. Besides those duties under section 59, the highway authority has an obligation to fulfil the Network Management Duty, under Part 2 of the Traffic Management Act 2004 – to do all that is reasonably practicable to manage its road network with a view to keeping traffic moving.
4. For ‘standard’ undertakers work, 10 working days’ notice is required.
Within the notice period, the undertaker must indicate whether he intends to work outside the normal working day.
This information is used by the highway authority in respect of its powers under section 56 to direct when works may take place.
I will leave your readers and frustrated Worcester motorists to draw their own conclusions.
KEITH LEWIS
Worcester
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