Cheshire East has 44,000 requests a year from utility companies to dig up roads but has slowed down plans to introduce a scheme to speed up roadworks insisting it must get it right.

The council was first asked in February 2023 by Cllr Janet Clowes (Wybunbury, Con) about applying to the Department for Transport to introduce a lane rental scheme, which allows councils to charge companies for the time roadworks occupy their busiest routes.

On Thursday (September 18) the highways and transport committee voted unanimously to approve the continued development of a lane rental scheme proposal, but councillors were told more work is needed before an application can be submitted to the DfT.

Head of highways Domenic de Bechi said: "The powers are designed to change the behaviour of street works promoters giving incentive to moving street works to off-peak times, and particularly combining works to reduce the impact on the network with congestion."

He said officers had been developing proposals to apply to the Secretary of State.

"We have to remember that lane rental is still in its infancy, there are only five operational schemes within England, of which one only commenced in April of this year," said the highways boss.

He said it was crucial Cheshire East learned from existing schemes to avoid mistakes and optimise the proposal it puts forward to the Secretary of State to maximise its chances of being approved first time.

"Learning from the experience of other operational schemes and using this to optimise the council's proposal will be beneficial.

"It will save time, cost, resource and reputation to get it right the first time," said Mr de Bechi.

"For these reasons, this report recommends undertaking further work and applying at a later point."

Committee chair Mark Goldsmith (Wilmslow, Ind) said the council has around 44,000 requests a year from utility companies to dig up its roads 'and monitoring all of that and coordinating all of that is a logistical nightmare'.

Cllr Mike Sewart (Poynton, Con), who seconded the original motion to council on the lane rental scheme, said: "I'm disappointed with the delay but fully understand it.

"We want to get it absolutely right before we introduce it."

He added: "I spoke to a councillor in West Sussex, where the scheme is operating, and she was very, very positive about it.

"She said the main difference she noticed was different utilities utilising a single rental slot on a road, so the water board books it, but the electricity people, the gas people, use the same slot to put their pipes, wires, etc, in at the same time, and that makes a big difference."