HERTFORDSHIRE County Council has called meetings with three of the biggest utility firms in the county after concerns were raised over “poorly planned roadworks”.

Council leader Cllr Steve Jarvis and Cllr Stephen Giles-Medhurst, chairman of the highways committee, met with representatives of Affinity Water earlier this week to discuss improving coordination around roadworks, while meetings with Cadent Gas and UKPN are also in the pipeline.

The outcome of the discussion is expected to be revealed at the next meeting of the highways cabinet panel in January.

It follows a motion submitted in July by Cllrs Matt Cowley and Vishal Patel, requesting the executive write to Government ministers about the inconvenience caused to residents by the issue.

In September, Cllr Giles-Medhurst wrote to the Secretary of State for Transport asking for higher powers and heavier fines to tackle “poorly planned, poorly managed and poorly finished roadworks” from utility companies.

He raised concerns about the low level of fines – £80 for breaching permit conditions and £300 for unauthorised roadworks – which he described as “not a meaningful disincentive” for “multi-million-pound” companies.

Cllr Giles-Medhurst, who took over the portfolio following the May local government elections, added: “I was surprised and frustrated to find that local authorities have no power to fine utility companies for failing to repair covers in the pavement or road.

“These can pose a significant hazard to pedestrians and road users, and while we can issue a defect notice, we have no power to charge or fine companies, and therefore no way to encourage them to fix these quickly.”

In response, the Minister for Roads and Buses, Simon Lightwood, wrote that fixed penalty notices for specific street works offences will be doubled in January. Elsewhere, overrun charges of up to £10,000 per day will soon include weekends and bank holidays as well as weekdays.

However, the minister added that the Government believes local authorities “have sufficient powers under the current arrangement” to manage the quality of street works.

The matter was discussed at a meeting of the county council’s highways cabinet panel earlier this month.

Cllr Matt Cowley, one of the proposers of the original motion, said: “One of the things I’ve heard quite a lot since I got elected in May is frustration with the volume of roadworks on our road network.

“When I’ve been looking into this, quite a lot of the time, [the council does] a bit of work and then some utility company comes along a couple of weeks later, and it’s just not got the level of coordination that I think residents expect.

“I think we need to do more to show residents that we are trying to get these utilities companies to coordinate with us, and when works are done, make sure they are to the right standard and that those roadworks aren’t left there for too long.”

Cllr Cowley raised a case example of a utility company gaining a permit seven days in advance, only to carry out emergency works and forget to cancel the original permit, leading to an unnecessary road closure for two days.

He added: “It’s just common sense to me that some of this stuff isn’t resident-focused at the moment.

“I think we need to make sure the utilities companies know that we’re going to do absolutely everything we can to make sure that the works they are doing are appropriate and are urgent when they say they’re urgent, and that the road works are only there as long as they need to be there.”

Cllr Sandy Walkington said: “We all share those war stories. I had a ludicrous situation in my own division, which I’ve talked to the chairman about two days ago.

“I got in touch with the network management team, who were excellent, they jumped in and gave the offending company a bit of a bing, quite rightly. And stuff was cleared up.

“I really am looking forward to the outcome of the meetings between you and the leader with senior representatives of the utility companies, because they really sometimes just do not behave like they take seriously the impact of what they are doing on people’s lives.

“They really could do better, and it’s so frustrating because we get blamed for what is actually not our fault.”

Chairman of the committee, Cllr Stephen Giles-Medhurst, said: “I’m sure it’s the frustration of all of us. And although my current network manager key officer is moving to another area next week, I have to say they have always been very receptive to my phone calls and have responded.

“I think the network management team do an incredibly good job of trying to keep track of this.

“We have issued a substantial number of fines, as you’ll see from the notebook we sent to the Secretary of State, and we’ve kept that money in the local authority. But I’d rather we weren’t issuing the fines.

“I’d rather we didn’t have traffic lights up when [works] aren’t there, and I’d rather we didn’t have roads being dug up without permits.”

A report stated that utility companies completed around 26,500 works this year up to the end of September. The council issued fixed penalty notices (FPNs) on around 7% (approximately 1,855) of the works undertaken.

Just over half of FPNs were because of administrative errors that did not directly affect the travelling public. Many remaining FPNs are due to signing, lighting and guarding failures.

Councillors noted the report, with an update, is expected at the next committee date in January.

Following the meeting, an Affinity Water spokesman told the Local Democracy Service: “We can confirm that we met with the leader of Hertfordshire County Council, Cllr Steve Jarvis, and executive member Cllr Stephen Giles-Medhurst earlier this week to discuss how we can strengthen collaboration going forward. It was a positive meeting, and we will continue to work closely with the highways authority to deliver our programme of mains renewals.

“This work is essential to reducing leakage and supporting future growth across the county, and we remain committed to minimising disruption while these improvements take place.”

Vicky Grieve, network director at Cadent Gas, said: “Customer satisfaction is hugely important to us, and we are always looking at ways that we can improve customer experience across the East of England.

“Earlier this year, we held a stakeholder event where highways teams from around the network came together to share ideas, raise concerns, and talk about how we can all work together more efficiently.

“We are happy to hold further discussions with Hertfordshire County Council and have arranged a meeting to be held in January.”

A UKPN spokesman added: “We have offered to attend [a] meeting and are happy to be involved in the discussions.”