Roadworks and highway-maintenance contracts

Please treat the following as a request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and, where it concerns held environmental information, the Environmental Information Regulations 2004.

1. Do your roadworks and highway-maintenance contracts place an explicit obligation on contractors to remove all temporary signage, sign frames, sandbags and traffic cones on completion of the works, and if so, within what timescale?

2. When contractors bid on these contracts, do they include and charge you for the cost of that equipment? A general description of the contractual treatment is sufficient; we do not seek commercially sensitive rates. If you are able to share an indicative or aggregate value without breaching commercial confidence, that would be welcome.

3. Once the works are complete, do your contractors (or the utilities and works promoters operating under your permit scheme) have any contractual or commercial incentive to recover that equipment, and is non-recovery subject to any penalty, performance deduction or recharge?

4. Are contractors' removal of redundant equipment inspected or monitored? In 2024/25 and 2025/26 to date, how many times have you applied a penalty, performance deduction or recharge for failure to remove redundant roadworks equipment, and what total sum did that amount to? If this is not recorded, please say so.

5. For the two financial years 2024/25 and 2025/26 to date, broken down by year: how many reports of abandoned or redundant roadworks equipment did you receive; how many items or loads (or, if recorded, what tonnage) did you remove; and how many reports were recorded as cleared? If you do not record this in a distinct category, please say so.

6. What was your total expenditure on clearing abandoned or redundant roadworks equipment in 2024/25 and in 2025/26 to date, including labour, plant, traffic management, disposal and contractor charges? If this is not kept separate from general highway maintenance or street-cleansing budgets, please confirm that.

7. Approximately how much does it cost you to clear a single report, item, or a typical clearance visit? If this is not recorded, an estimate, or the basis you would use, is welcome. [Optional, for two-tier areas: If your authority is not the highway authority for the roads in your area, we would be grateful if you could confirm this and, where possible, indicate the responsible authority; the questions above may be treated as not applicable in that case.]

1. All contracts and specifications include the removal of equipment used by the contractor at the completion of works

2. Rates and prices include for the setting out and removal of equipment, usually with a maintenance charge for the time in between those operations.

3. For works in which LCC is the works promoter, equipment left on site is owned by the contractor (or their subcontractor) and therefore they would be suffering a financial loss by not collecting the equipment at the end of the task. It will also not be available for the subsequent task. Penalties are incurred if the Permit is not able to be closed in line with the granted conditions. For Utilities, under the legislation associated with The Street Works (Charges for Unreasonably Prolonged Occupation of the Highway) (England) Regulations 2009, LCC is able to issue penalties to any utility operating under our permit scheme that fails to remove all equipment in a timely manner following their works.

4. LCC monitors and inspects a percentage of all permitted works taking place on the highway network in accordance with the Code of Practice for Street Works Inspections. During 2024/25 LCC recognised 432 offences of utility failure to remove all equipment from site following works, resulting in the recovery of £129,950.00 in S.74 overstay offences. In 2025/26, 421 similar offences were identified totalling £156,250.00 being recovered in S.74 overstay charges.

5. Removal of waste is a function carried out by District Councils, however, a number of enquiries are received regarding equipment, in particular signs, which may be on the network after a scheme has been completed or works have been required. This often relates to ‘Flood’ boards or temporary warning signs and is not recorded as a separate category within our customer relationship management system.

6. These tasks are generally undertaken by District Councils.

7. As above.