Street Works Management and Co-ordination

As a London borough, Bexley operates its street works permitting in line with the London Permit Scheme (LoPS) and we use the Department for Transport’s Street Manager system to manage, assess, and track all street works activity.

The Statutory Undertakers/Utility Companies (Thames Water, Southern Gas Networks, UK Power Networks, etc) that provide the essentials services into homes and businesses have a legal right to access and maintain their equipment. This means that the council cannot refuse them doing street works, but can seek to best co-ordinate their planned work (emergency repairs for issues such as gas leaks have to be treated immediately so are not able to be co-ordinated). Approved diversions from street works must be to roads of the same classification or higher, so diversion onto the main roads is common, but which means these do have to take higher than normal traffic quite often, resulting in delays to drivers.

Each year, Bexley receives more than 12,000 permit applications for street works. These include a wide range of activities, from the co-ordinated planned works to urgent and emergency repairs. A dedicated team of Street Works Inspectors plays a key role in this process. They assist with planning suitable traffic management layouts and carry out over 4,000 inspections annually to check that works are being carried out safely and in compliance with the conditions of the permit.

To improve how we manage our own highway works, Bexley has developed a software link between our asset management systems and those of our own highway works contractors. This interface enables faster data sharing, better monitoring, and more effective compliance checking.

We also hold quarterly co-ordination meetings with our major utility providers and representatives from Transport for London (TfL). These meetings provide an opportunity for all parties to share their work plans and programmes. Any concerns or potential conflicts are discussed, helping to ensure that permit applications are submitted, reviewed, and approved in the most efficient and coordinated way possible.