Endless traffic jams and road closures plague many streets across Kent, with motorists often directing the blame at the council allowing work to be carried out at the same time.

But the truth is, the authority's officials and elected members have little say in where they go or when, as KCC's highways chief Neil Baker is at pains to point out. Simon Finlay reports...

Mike Baldock, the fiercely independent Swale county councillor, is the master of a pithy quip, invariably delivered at an opportune moment to prod or amuse.

He drew chuckles - smirks at the very least - around the chamber at County Hall the other week when he slipped in: "You know you're in Kent when you hit your first pothole."

Cllr Baldock wasn't actually joking. He sounded half in despair at the state of his county; his home. Seemingly blighted from top to bottom by houses the government tells us we need and that few locally can actually afford, the county is changing irrevocably, perhaps irretrievably. Anyway, that's the way he sees it...what he describes as the "absolute destruction of Kent".

One colossal consequence of the mass building programme is roadworks. First to repair the highways damaged by the massive increase in cars and, secondly, to install the utilities required by tens of thousands of new dwellings.

Kent County Council (KCC) which issues the temporary road closure permits has virtually no say in when, where or to whom they can be issued - yet it is often the authority that gets the blame.

There is a palpable frustration when Neil Baker speaks about road works.

Kent’s highways chief has called for a change in the law in order to tighten up on road works which currently blight local roads.

Cllr Baker said nearly one in three of all permits issued by KCC are for “emergencies” which can mean almost immediate closure with just about no notice.

The member for Canterbury is keen to debunk the myth that KCC can refuse to grant licences applied for by utility firms such as gas, electricity, water or broadband providers.

It makes the council's control over closures and their location nigh on impossible to co-ordinate.

Cllr Baker was speaking the day after it was revealed no fewer than seven sets of road works were happening at the same time in and around Ashford’s town centre bringing misery to motorists.

At the same time, villagers were bracing themselves for the three month closure of the crossroads in Hawkhurst (for a new traffic lights system) which is widely feared will dump thousands of vehicles daily onto the back roads of rural Kent or through communities like Goudhurst, already burdened by cars and lorries it does not want.

Cllr Baker said: “It is a bit misleading to call them permits, to be honest, as we don’t have powers to deny permits that are applied for.

“What we need is a legislation change and I know this is something the local MPs are now actively looking at.

“My view is that the Highways Act should be amended to reflect this changing position and that the duty to keep traffic flowing should have primacy over all else. But it is a huge question.

“In years gone by, it was just about manageable but today there are so many utilities and broadband providers who need to dig the roads up. It is impossible to co-ordinate.

"Perhaps most troubling is that even when works are programmed to have the least disruption (and I stress ‘least’ as there will always be some), utility companies can declare an emergency and start work immediately - only having to inform the highways authority, in our case Kent County Council, within two working hours.

“At last count, a staggering 29% of all utility work in Kent was conducted as an emergency.

"It simply cannot be right that it's cheaper to pay a fine for not manually controlling traffic lights at peak times (to keep vehicles flowing as well as possible) than to pay someone to do it."

In a recent submission to the House of Commons transport select committee, KCC sought to have an "emergency" redefined in favour of Kent's residents.

A scour of news pages across England and the plaintive cries are the same. The theme of highways' "managed decline" and local people moaning about sitting in traffic jams caused by road works of one sort or another is a constant.

A lack of meaningful funding from central government to tackle that decline is another, said Cllr Baker.

He added: "What we need is significantly more funds for ongoing road maintenance, over multiple years, so we can plan ahead. While we will always need to fix potholes, with funding that genuinely reflects the miles driven on Kent roads each year and the geology we have, rather than just the miles of road we have, we could be much more proactive and radically reduce roads reaching crumbling point.

“We need real funds, not photos of government ministers – whatever their party – pointing at potholes and claiming the amount of cash they are announcing, or reannouncing after performing financial gymnastics, will solve the issue. Roads have been underfunded for decades, it will take much more than a quick fix if we residents are able to drive on surfaces they want and deserve.”

Just before last Christmas, the government published a response to a consultation called "Streetworks: fines and lane rental surplus funds" which was designed to place a greater onus on those companies carrying out the work.

It revealed plans to change the lane rental scheme which allows a highway authority to charge up to £2,500 per day for works on the busiest roads at the busiest times.

The government will seek to claim half of the lane rental surplus, double the fines, and charge for over-runs to apply at weekends and bank holidays.

Street Works UK, the body overseeing road works and those carrying them out, fears the financial hit "will raise operating costs for utility companies without significantly improving compliance, hindering their ability to invest in vital upgrades".

One suspects that contention gains little sympathy in Kent but the government's intentions are acknowledged, however late.

But Clive Bairsto, chief executive of Street Works UK said: "We look forward to working with the government on the effective implementation of these proposals, ensuring that our members can continue carrying out the critical work that connects communities to essential services, while working to the highest standards to minimise disruptions and ensure high quality and lasting results.”

Conservative KCC colleague and chair of the Environment and Transport cabinet committee Sean Holden, fed up with road works clogging up the county, recently helped to set up a small inspectorate dedicated to keeping permit applicants in line.

The idea is that the team will focus on road works and see if they are abiding by the terms of the licence they have been granted.

In 2020-21 there were 6,604 closures for utilities which leapt to 10,296 in 2023-24 while KCC works rose from 3,477 to 5,992 in the same period.

Much of the work is associated with house building or infrastructure repair or maintenance in the county while KCC must carry out essential maintenance and repairs, such as pothole patching.

For the first nine months of 2024, around 1,300 fines were imposed for contractors breaching the terms of the temporary road closure permits but the fines amounted to just £95,000.

As of January, there are now four inspectors dropping in randomly and unannounced to roadworks to make sure they are as they should be.

Cllr Holden said the average fine was around £75 per breach and although he would like the companies to be fined considerably more, the penalties are set at a national level, not by KCC.

"The fines set by central government are pretty pathetic," said Cllr Holden.

"What the guys from the inspectorate can do is remind the contractors that they are being watched and that we can show up at any time. No one knows when they will show up. They can hand out penalties for things like over-staying or smaller things like a failure to correctly display the contractor's telephone number."

KCC's highways department manages 5,400 miles of road in Kent, which makes the inspectorate's task all the more daunting.

Cllr Holden said: “It is universally annoying for all the residents of Kent that we have gone from a few thousand closures annually to 16,000 closures a year. It is the county council’s job to make sure that these closures are not as problematic as they could be.

“I am reassured that we are bearing down on people misusing their permits or not doing the work properly.

“It’s no consolation that we can’t cut down the number of closures. It is often utility companies replacing gas mains, putting in electrical connections or fixing water leaks."

Setting up the inspectorate has been a swan song for Cllr Holden, as he steps away from KCC in May to go into "proper" retirement. But he offers one last thought.

"Kent has more than 5,000 miles of road and there are 16,000 permits a year being issued. That's three road works per mile, per year on average across Kent. That's a massive nuisance."