Essex Permit Scheme 

On the 7th January 2015 the Parliamentary Secretary of State made an order for the Essex County Council Permit Scheme to come into force on the 16th March 2015. Essex County Council has further made on the 27th October 2015 a Local Order to amend the current Statutory Instrument in place to comply with the Permit Scheme 2015 regulations

The Permit Scheme applies to all streets which are publicly maintainable within the County of Essex. It includes all traffic sensitive streets, strategic routes and non traffic sensitive streets defined as reinstatement category 0, 1, 2, 3 or 4 as identified on the National Street Gazetteer (NSG).

Permit schemes provide an alternative to the notification system (in accordance with the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991), whereby, rather than informing the Highway Authority about its intention to carry out works, an activity promoter will have to apply for a permit to occupy the highway. The Permit Scheme applies to all works promoters, including the Highway Authority (Essex County Council’s own works). All work promoters will have to display a board with a permit number which will identify the roadworks and street works.

Why have a permit scheme?

The Permit Scheme objective will be facilitated by improving performance in line with the Authorities’ Network Management Duty in relation to the following key factors:

• Enhanced coordination and cooperation
• Encouragement of partnership working between the Permit Authority, all activity promoters and key stakeholder groups identified within this document
• Provision of more accurate and timely information to be communicated between all stakeholders, including members of the public
• Promotion and encouragement of collaborative working
• Improvement in timing and duration of activities, particularly in relation to the busiest streets within the network
• Promotion of dialogue with regard to the way activities are to be carried out
• Enhanced programming of activities and better forward planning by all activity promoters

The Permit Scheme objectives align with the strategic objectives contained within the authorities.

The key outcome for transport is:

• Sustainable economic growth for Essex communities and businesses

Two of the indicators relating to this outcome are:

Increased connectivity and journey time reliability on priority route network (PR1)

• Number of bus and/or community transport journeys

Consultation

Essex County Council held a full formal consultation which ended on the 15th July 2014 with over 400 comments, queries and questions being received and given due consideration. The draft permit scheme document was modified as a direct result of the feedback received. The full details of the comments received as part of the consultation can be downloaded below.

Permit Fees

Essex County Council’s permit fees as outlined in Appendix F of the Essex Permit Scheme Document:

Reduced Permit Fee

There is a reduction in fees for works wholly outside of Traffic Sensitive Times on Traffic Sensitive Streets. Essex County Council reviewed the HAUC Advice Note No. 2013/02 and will apply a discount to both Road Category 3 – 4 that is Traffic Sensitive and Road Category 0-2, were the works are wholly outside Traffic Sensitive Times. This is over and above the HAUC Advice Note.

(*)Reduction is 15% on permit fees as indicated on matrix above

Permit Variation Fees

For permit variations, the Permit Authority will charge:

• £45 for all works on category 0, 1 and 2 streets and category 3 and 4 streets that are traffic-sensitive;
• £35 for major activities on category 3 and 4 and non traffic-sensitive streets.

For all permit enquiries

Please call the Customer Service Centre on: 0345 603 7631

You can also visit one.network to find out who is working in your area and sign up for alerts.

Related pages

Related Documents

Archived Documents