Legislation designed to reduce road works appears to be failing, says the AA.

As the holiday season starts next week with the Easter break, the motoring organisation questions the operation of warning notices and penalties over road works. 

March is traditionally the worst time for traffic cones and road works, according to the AA. 

New regulations to help coordinate roadworks come into force from 1 April 2008 but the AA questions how effective the changes will be.

Regulations included in the Traffic Management Act 2004 declare that all road and street-works activities in England and Wales should be recorded. Utility companies must also provide local authorities with coordinates showing where work is to be carried out.

Traditionally there were more roadworks in March as local authorities who had under spent on road maintenance rushed to spend their budget in fear of losing it.  Even though today the money is not ring-fenced for roads, many local authorities increase the amount of road works in springtime.

Commenting, Edmund King, AA president  said , “It does seem ironic that we put a man on the moon 39 years ago yet we don’t seem to have cracked how to co-ordinate road works. "The register of streetworks and fixed penalty notices for those overstaying should help but we are not holding our breath.”

More than 250 utility companies also have the right to dig up the roads and they are digging more than 2.4 million holes per year.  This costs more than £4.3 billion in congestion costs.

Despite legislation in the 1991 New Roads and Streetworks Act and 2004 Traffic Management Act, many of the measures meant to improve the situation have been watered down or delayed.

Often it is unclear who is responsible for the chaos caused when the same stretch of road is constantly dug up.