By Local Democracy Reporter Simon Finlay
The number of road closures in the county has rocketed in the past four years, new figures have revealed.
Permits issued to shut the highways temporarily have shot up in recent years, particularly those by utility companies.
The figures were contained in a report put before members of the Kent County Council (KCC) Environment and Transport Cabinet Committee on Thursday (September 19).
In 2020-21 there were 6,604 closures for utilities which leapt to 10,296 in 2023-24 while KCC works rose from 3,477 to 5,992 in the same period.
Much of the work is associated with house building in the county while KCC must carry out essential maintenance and repairs, such as pothole patching.
Replacing old pipes or installing broadband into more remote rural areas are also causing the closures.
Committee chairman, Cllr Sean Holden (pictured), set up an inspectorate earlier this year of three KCC officials to monitor works.
He said 1,300 fines have been issued this year to contractors not complying with the terms of the temporary closure permits with fines totalling £95,000.
Cllr Holden said the average fine paid was less than £80 per breach and asked for much higher penalties in the future. Fines are set nationally and not by KCC.
Breaches can include not displaying the permit number properly, overstaying on a site, failing to remove signs or put in proper diversions.
Cllr Holden said: “It is universally annoying for all the residents of Kent that we have gone from a few thousand closures annually to 16,000 closures a year. It is the county council’s job to make sure that these closures are not as problematic as they could be.
“I am reassured that we are bearing down on people misusing their permits or not doing the work properly.
“It’s no consolation that we can’t cut down the number of closures. It is often utility companies replacing gas mains, putting in electrical connections or fixing water leaks.
“We have to allow them to do that but the main thing is that we keep the pressure on to minimise the disruption to the residents of Kent.”
Papers submitted for the meeting state: “Temporary road closures continue to increase.
“This reflects the ever-increasing number of organisations now seeking to access the highway to undertake critical work (e.g. utility companies, telecommunications, and developers – all with increasing numbers of sub-contractors of differing capability and experience of highway working).
“The data below demonstrates this; road closures have increased year on year.
“We are also aware that the project Building Digital UK (BDUK) will bring a significant increase in rural closures.”
KCC cabinet member for highways, Cllr Neil Baker (pictured), warned committee members road works are likely to increase but agreed the council must lessen the impact on Kent’s residents.
Maidstone central member Cllr Tom Cannon asked KCC officers if it was possible to see the numbers of road closures going back 15 years to put in context the present problems.
Cllr Holden said he knew that in 2016 the number of permits issues was around 3,000.
He added that every mile of KCC’s network of 5,400 miles of roads is now being closed on average three times a year.
The committee passed a recommendation by Cllr Harry Rayner to Cllr Baker and KCC officers to “stringently” enforce fines for breaches and to explore how Transport for London enforces closures on red routes for possible adoption in Kent.
