Any activity undertaken in a street has the potential to cause disruption. They can reduce the width of the street available to traffic, pedestrians and other users, causing inconvenience to businesses and local residents. We introduced the Cambridgeshire permit scheme in October 2016.
Under a Permit Scheme, those responsible for road and street works will have to apply for permission before they start the work (apart from emergency work where they have to apply for a permit within 2 hours).
We will grant, refuse or tailor the application; taking into considerations works already in progress and demands on the network. The permit will have a list of specific conditions that the utility companies and their workforce have to adhere to. These may include working hours or the way they control the traffic around the works to benefit the highway users.
The scheme has been developed in compliance with the Department for Transport's Guidance and National Condition Text. Please see documents below.
Section 58 Restrictions
Below are the current proposed Section 58 restrictions on the public highway within Cambridgeshire. Section 58 of the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991 refers to restrictions following substantial road works like resurfacing or reconstruction of the public highway. It prevents statutory undertakers from completing works that would cause disturbance to the highway surface without prior approval.
Traffic Sensitive Streets review
In early 2018, we completed a review of our most traffic sensitive streets. This review, last undertaken in the 1990s, helps us understand the constraints and pressures on our highway network.
Following this review, below are the amendments to the traffic sensitivity of Cambridgeshire’s highway network.
In April 2023, regulations came into force that changed the traffic sensitive criteria. We have reviewed our traffic sensitive streets and no changes are proposed as the criteria that have been removed were not used to designate streets as traffic sensitive when we carried out our 2018 amendments.
Cambridgeshire Permit Evaluation
The following reports detail the income, expenditure, Key Performance Indicators and successes demonstrated through the management of roadworks and street works in Cambridgeshire.
