East Sussex County Council (ESCC) has approved a lane rental scheme to reduce roadwork-related disruptions on its busiest roads. Starting in April 2025, the scheme, aligned with Department for Transport (DfT) guidelines, will charge utility companies, developers, and the local highway authority up to £2,500 per day for roadworks during traffic-sensitive times.
The scheme will work alongside the East Sussex Permit Scheme but will only apply to selected roads and not the whole of the county.
The scheme is designed to encourage behavioural change by applying a daily charge for any part(s) of the day that the street is occupied by the works during chargeable hours. The daily charge will not apply if the works take place outside of the specified times.
Genuine immediate activities (emergency works) that must be carried out during the charging period to avoid significant danger to public safety or significant damage to property will not be charged to enable the immediate activities to be dealt with.
Aims of the scheme
- Speed up roadworks to reduce disruption
- Improve planning, coordination, and working methods
- Encourage off-peak work outside of peak periods
- Enable work to be right first time and as quickly as possible
Costs
The East Sussex Lane rental scheme will charge a maximum of £2,500 per day for roadworks during traffic-sensitive times. The scheme will apply only to the busiest 5% of roads in the county and these roads will be reviewed annually.
To avoid additional charges, applicants can:
- work outside of traffic-sensitive times
- work outside of term or seasonal times
- work at weekends and bank holidays during term-times
- avoid the reduction of lanes available to traffic
- work with other highway companies to share a collective charge.
Supporting documentation