GeoPlace has supported Durham County Council and Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council in securing Department for Transport (DfT) approval for new lane rental schemes, helping both authorities develop robust, evidence-led proposals, designed to reduce disruption from road and street works.
While Durham’s scheme covers a large and geographically dispersed highway network, BCP faces the very different pressures of a densely populated coastal area, with significant seasonal traffic and a tourism-dependent economy. Its lane rental scheme has been designed around the particular challenge of managing disruption on busy urban and coastal routes.
Working alongside each authority throughout the development process, GeoPlace provided the technical analysis and evidence required to identify where lane rental would deliver the greatest benefit.
The approvals represent another important milestone in the growing use of lane rental schemes by highway authorities seeking to improve journey reliability, encourage better coordination of works and minimise the impact of road and street works on residents, businesses, public transport and the wider economy.
Rather than focusing on charging for the time that works occupy the highway, the schemes are designed to encourage better planning, earlier collaboration and more innovative working practices. By incentivising organisations to complete works more efficiently, coordinate activities and avoid the busiest parts of the network during the most traffic-sensitive periods, lane rental becomes a tool for improving how street and road works are planned and delivered.
In supporting both authorities to develop their individual schemes, GeoPlace’s Critical Highway Routes Identification Service (CHRIS) analysed key highway data to identify the parts of their networks most affected by congestion and disruption. By bringing fragmented datasets together, CHRIS provides a transparent, evidence-based foundation for developing smarter traffic management schemes such as lane rental. It can reduce months of manual analysis to weeks, freeing teams to focus on scheme modelling and documentation, while providing consistent, high-quality evidence to support decisions and reduce the risk of challenges during consultation.
For Durham County Council, the approved scheme supports the council’s ambition to reduce congestion caused by road and street works while encouraging utility companies and contractors to plan works more effectively, minimise occupation of the highway and collaborate wherever possible.
Councillor Tim McGuinness, Durham County Council’s Cabinet member for rural, farming and transport, said:
“The lane rental scheme is a fantastic step towards reducing congestion, delays and drivers’ frustration. It will help improve traffic flow and minimise the time road closures are in place, as well as incentivising collaboration and efficient working, while hopefully discouraging the opposite.
“This will help oil the wheels of Durham’s economy by reducing lost time due to delays and disruption to businesses. The reduced vehicle idling times should also have a positive impact on reducing air pollution.
“We hope residents in County Durham see a big difference on their roads in the coming years.”
For Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council, alongside reducing disruption, the approved scheme promotes collaborative working and innovation, with opportunities to reduce or waive lane rental charges where organisations demonstrate good performance, adopt innovative working practices or work collaboratively to minimise disruption.
Cllr Andy Hadley, BCP Council’s portfolio holder for highways said:
“We know just how frustrating road works can be for our residents – but we also know how important it is to improve our transport network, infrastructure and maintain and renew essential services.”
“These new powers are a really significant step forward and have been proven to work in other areas across the country.”
“As the first local authority in the South West to be implementing these powers I am really pleased that our application has been given the go-ahead and our officers will now get to work on the finer details before they come into effect next spring.”
Luke Meaton, Streetworks Operations and Regulatory Manager at Openreach, welcomed the collaborative approach taken during the Durham scheme’s development:
“This collaborative approach gives us confidence that the scheme will work effectively for all stakeholders.”
The successful approvals demonstrate the value of combining authoritative location data with detailed technical analysis to develop lane rental schemes that are evidence-led, proportionate and capable of delivering measurable benefits for both highway authorities and road users.
Richard Groombridge, Strategic Product and Data Development Manager at GeoPlace, emphasised that:
“Lane rental is about much more than charging for space on the highway, it is about using evidence to change how street and road works are planned and delivered. Our work with Durham and BCP Councils shows how authoritative location data and detailed network analysis can identify where intervention will have the greatest impact, helping councils develop proportionate schemes that reduce disruption, improve journey reliability and encourage better collaboration across the street works sector.”
As more local authorities consider lane rental as part of their wider network management strategy, GeoPlace continues to support councils in developing robust, data-driven proposals that satisfy national requirements while helping reduce congestion, improve journey reliability and encourage more efficient management of England’s highways.
(Image – Richard Groombridge, courtesy of Geoplace)
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