Call for UK utility firms to face higher fines for ‘street scars’ on pavements

Government adviser says water and telecoms privatisation is to blame for disfiguring streets with tarmac

The government must increase fines on utility companies that dig up pavements for roadworks, then pour in tarmac rather than fixing the mess, a government adviser has said.

Telecoms and water companies are creating street scars" in a wasteful process" that is marring British high streets, Nicholas Boys Smith, who chairs the Office for Place in the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has said in a report.