Lane Rental: Streets Ahead
There are many elements that go into managing roadworks, and receiving the "green light" to introduce additional powers via our very own Lane Rental Scheme is one of the ways we're doing this in Buckinghamshire.
As one of the first local authorities to introduce such a scheme, it will be a vital tool which supports Buckinghamshire Highways' Permit Scheme ensuring that our approach to managing roadworks is always Streets Ahead.
As anyone who lives or travels in Buckinghamshire will know, at times, key routes through our towns and villages can get jammed. Journey times become longer as roadworks increase pressure on already busy roads. While we try to coordinate these works to minimise pressures, over recent years we have seen a huge increase in permits for works.
Whether carried out by our own teams here at Buckinghamshire Highways or by other work promoters, roadworks are essential for:
- safety
- road maintenance
- supporting the delivery of new developments and infrastructure
- and utility works - keeping water, gas, electricity and broadband flowing to our homes and businesses.
With Lane Rental powers, we can charge up to £2,500 a day to undertake work on the busiest parts of the county’s network, at times when demand from people making journeys is at the highest.
The Lane Rental Scheme supports Buckinghamshire Highways’ Permit Scheme, and its implementation, expected in Spring 2026, will bring several benefits, including:
- better coordination and more efficient roadworks
- behavioural changes in the industry to increase collaboration - encouraging work promoters to think differently about how or when they carry out roadworks
- reduced congestion, improved journey times and reliability
The scheme incentivises work promoters, those who need to carry out works on the county’s road network, to become more efficient with how they manage the works when a road or lane closure is needed. This should encourage those working on the roads to either move their works to less busy times, or complete them in a quicker timescale, to avoid accumulating charges. The result should help reduce congestion and create more reliable journeys for road users.
The scheme will apply to around 7.8% of Buckinghamshire’s network (approx. 500 roads and streets), not the whole of the county.
Read more about Buckinghamshire’s Lane Rental Scheme or watch the video below for more information on our Buckinghamshire scheme, Lane Rental: Streets Ahead.
Clearly, we can’t eradicate all delays and road congestion, especially when it comes to the need for emergency works, but this scheme encourages those working on the roads to:
- better plan their works to take place during less busy times
- look for ways to collaborate
- complete works more quickly.
Lane Rental will mean we have more power, and more meaningful options in levying fines to encourage better behaviour from those working on our roads so that our residents have less disruption as they move around.
And reducing disruption isn’t the only benefit for Buckinghamshire’s road users! Government guidance and regulations allow us to use the money from the scheme to pay for the people and tools needed to run it. Any additional money will then be ringfenced in our ‘Streets Ahead Investment Fund’ to reinvest back into our county’s highways network through initiatives which reduce the disruption and adverse effects caused by roadworks.
Buckinghamshire Council continues to have a zero-tolerance approach to breaches of conditions for roadworks. The Streetworks team carries out inspections seven days a week, making sure those carrying out works on the county’s highway network are sticking to the conditions of their permit. Where terms are breached, fines are issued, and in the past year a record number of fines and permit revocations have been issued.
We’re looking forward to sharing more with you in the coming months and seeing how we can improve journeys for those driving, biking, cycling or wheeling in Buckinghamshire.
We know there is a lot of work happening on the roads across the county (a combination of our own programmes, works by utility companies, and for external projects such as HS2 and EWR), which can result in more traffic, longer journey times and diversions.
While the council can control the timing of some roadworks, it is not always possible to plan every piece of work and utility companies are legally entitled to dig up roads to repair their equipment if it is an emergency.
Before you head out the door, remember to check before you travel and take a look at some of our useful tools and tips below.
- Creating an account for One.Network - a great system for showing road closure information, seeing which roads have the most disruption and for receiving alerts from any areas or roads that you want to set-up as being important to you . One Network is available and accessible to everyone.
- Thinking about other ways to travel? We have some excellent and sustainable ways to travel in Bucks. From using public transport and our on-demand bus services (Wycombe PickMeUp and VillageConnect: Aylesbury), to signing up to a car share scheme or making use of our walking, cycling and wheeling routes across the county.
There’s some useful links below to help you travel more sustainably.
- How to travel more sustainably
- View walking, cycling and wheeling routes in Buckinghamshire
- E-scooter trials in the county
- Using public and community transport, including our two on-demand minibus services: Pick Me Up (in High Wycombe, run by Carousel Buses) and Village Connect (in Aylesbury, run by We Move)
- Bus travel offers and discounts