Issue details

Highway service fees

Highways & Transportation makes charges for a range of services provided to a variety of utilities, consultants, businesses and to a lesser extent, members of the public. It is proposed to increase fees in line with recent council tax increases, unless fees are not covering reasonable costs where a further increase has been proposed.

As there was no increase in 2015/16 the general increase has been at 3.98% reflecting 2 years council tax increases at 1.99% each year. Figures have been rounded for ease of application. The effective date for agreed changes to fees and charges is April 2016.

Inspection fees are published nationally by regulation through the New Roads and Street Works Act; these are noted in Appendix 1 for information. 

Highway developer fees

Charging for pre-planning application advice to cover officer time was introduced in April 2014. Upon review, it is evident that KCC’s charging tiers are too narrow and not in line with other Authorities.

With the continued increase in the number of large residential and commercial developments coming forward, it is recommended that further charging tiers are introduced for larger developments (over 200 units for residential and 10,000 m² for commercial) to reflect the scale of developments and the greater demand on officer time; the background and table of proposed charges are detailed in Appendix 2.

Traffic Signal Supply of Technical Data 

Charges for the supply of traffic signal timing data, operation and site layout are time consuming due to their unique nature. It is therefore proposed to increase these charges to cover the staff time involved and recover our costs. These fees are now more aligned with those charged by other Highway Authorities.