Utility companies

Utility companies are electricity, gas, water, and telecommunication companies

Responsibilities

Utility companies have legal powers to install and maintain their apparatus in the highway. This legislation, and a series of national codes of practice and specifications, exist to ensure that their work is safe and fit for purpose. Utility companies, as professional private organisations, are entirely responsible for the quality of their work and must ensure that their work meets the national specifications.

All utility reinstatements have a guarantee period of two years, during which any faults must be remedied at their cost. The same legislation and national codes of practice permit us to inspect a utility company’s work.

In some cases, mainly telecoms providers, utility companies compete to provide services to customers, and this can mean that roads are dug up multiple times to lay the same type of service.

Minimising disruption

The County Council has a legal duty to coordinate works and minimise traffic congestion. We do this through a permit scheme, where all contractors working on the highway must obtain a permit to work. Permits must be applied for between 3 days and 10 days ahead of the works start, with longer duration planned works generally needing at least 3 months pre-authorisation before the permit is submitted. The more disruptive the works, the longer the advance notification period is. This notification period gives us time to assess the utility companies plans and agree permit restrictions.

The highway authority cannot prevent a utility company from undertaking works, but can set conditions on a permit. These conditions are purely aimed at getting the works done quickly, avoiding conflicts with other works and trying to reduce potential and avoidable traffic congestion. Where the County Council is aware of multiple works going on we encourage collaborative working, if the dates can be synchronised and it is safe to do so.

Any works on the highway will inevitably cause traffic problems, but the conditions should reduce these. Granting a permit does not indicate that the County Council approves or agrees with the work, it merely confirms that measures have been agreed to try to reduce traffic disruption.

The County Council also protects newly resurfaced roads by restricting non emergency works for up to three years.

Inspection of works by utility companies

There are approximately 100,000 holes dug in Hampshire roads each year and it is impossible to inspect all of them. The national code of practice for inspections sets out a process whereby the County Council visually inspects a random sample of utility works to determine compliance with the National specifications and Codes of Practice. The percentage is normally set at 30%, but it can reduce or increase depending on compliance levels. Where a utility company fails to comply, the County Council requires them to undertake remedial works, at their own cost, to correct the problem.

  • We undertake extra inspections as part of normal highway duties or when we receive reports from members of the public. These additional inspections are usually visual, but can also take the form of cores to assess the materials used in the reconstruction.
Emergency / Urgent Works

Occasionally utility apparatus fails, creating a dangerous situation or a loss of a vital service to a customer. In such cases utility companies can execute immediate works to make the area safe or reconnect the customer. Such works are started, and a retrospective permit is sent to us to alert us of the incident. As no pre-planning or discussions are possible, such works can often be highly disruptive.

Planning Permission and Residents Notification

As utility companies have legal powers to install and maintain their equipment no planning permission is needed. This includes telecoms masts under 15m in height. In addition, there is no legal requirement for utility companies to alert residents of their works, though for some disruptive works Hampshire County Council will request that do inform residents in the immediate area of the works.

Companies operating in Hampshire