Road closure, roadworks with traffic cones and warning sign on a rural country road in Buckinghamshire, UK
UK ISP Virgin Media (O2) has today become the latest broadband operator to join Lincolnshire County Council’s (LCC) interesting new Street Works Charter, which aims to help cut down on road traffic disruption by encouraging a more co-operative approach to street works between different companies (reducing unnecessary works).
The Street Works Charter, which was officially introduced last year, already appears to have had a positive impact. For example, data released in September 2024 estimated that the new approach had already helped to avoid 105 days’ worth of traffic hold-ups because of companies working together to avoid duplication of work and minimise road disruption at just one worksite in Lincoln. This reflected the combination of three major roadworks projects on Hykeham Road, which involved the council (footway replacement), CityFibre (FTTP broadband roll-out) and Cadent Gas (replacing 1,000 metres of gas pipes).
The charter has so far attracted support from a variety of different companies and organisation, such as utility firms (water, telecoms, gas etc.), contractors, mapping firms, the local authority and so forth. In terms of broadband operators, the following have already signed-up: Connexin, CityFibre, LightSpeed Broadband, Netomnia (Brsk) and Quickline.
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The good news this week is that Virgin Media has now joined the charter, which also impacts nexfibre because they make use of Virgin’s full fibre build engine. But oddly Openreach, the UK’s largest network access provider, still isn’t listed.
Nigel Myers, VMO2’s Senior Statutory and Streetworks Policy Manager, said:
“Virgin Media O2, Lincolnshire County Council and industry colleagues share a commitment to reducing the potential disruption that can occur when carrying out street works and during vital infrastructure projects, to provide access to Virgin Media O2’s high-speed broadband services.
This charter signifies our joint intention and collaboration to deliver essential street works efficiently and with minimum impact on the lives of the residents of Lincolnshire.”
Martin Hill, Leader of Lincolnshire County Council, said:
“The Street Works Charter has been designed so that we all carry out a more joined-up way of planning and working together.
We’ve worked at improved relationships with utility companies and smarter working around these works and have seen improvement. The Charter is there to help bring us all together.”
We should point out that other local authorities have also introduced similar schemes, although many others have not and the level of co-operation between the organisations, local authorities and companies involved in street works does still tend to vary quite a bit across the United Kingdom. Co-operative projects can admittedly be more complex to organise, but when done properly they can help to cut costs and reduce disruption.