Southampton City Council launches second attempt to introduce lane rental scheme

Council leaders have gone back to the drawing board on plans to charge roadworks operators in Southampton after an initial application was rejected by the government.

The lane rental scheme would see daily charges of £2,500 for a full closure and £1,500 for a lane closure or temporary traffic lights.

A first attempt to introduce the initiative was refused by the the Department for Transport (DfT) as too many roads were included in the proposal.

The city council is now consulting on a revised scheme that would include 67 roads.

Deputy leader and cabinet member for transport Cllr Christie Lambert said the local authority had taken on board feedback from the DfT and made adjustments.

This largely centred around reducing the size of the scheme to meet the government’s five to 10 per cent of the road network guidelines and finalising a traffic sensitivity review.

The rejected application, which was submitted by the council in April, included around 20 per cent of the road network.

Cllr Lambert said: “Subject to further approvals to proceed with the second application in October, we hope the DfT will fully consider and assess our revised application and we are committed to working with the DfT to address any further feedback or questions that may arise in due course.”

The consultation, which is open until September 10, said discounts would be offered to charges in specified circumstances, including if the work is major infrastructure improvements or if operators collaborate to reduce the overall length of time closures or temporary lights are in place.

A lane rental scheme provides a financial incentive for operators, whether that is utility firms or the council as the highway authority, to avoid working at peak times on the busiest roads and reduce the length of time work takes to complete, the local authority said.

All the roads included in the proposal would be at least subject to charges for work carried out in the peak weekday commuter periods, with some applying from 6am to 7pm during the week and from 10am to 4pm on weekends.

Analysis by the council suggested there would be a potential income from charges of £374,000 a year.

The set up costs are forecast to be £73,043, with £123,000 annual operating costs.

The council previously said 50 per cent of any surplus raised would be used to support road maintenance, such as repairing potholes and resurfacing, with any remaining money available for stakeholders to bid for to carry out improvement projects.