A scheme designed to reduce congestion on the county's busiest roads has been given the go-ahead to start in April.

Surrey's new Lane Rental Scheme will give utility companies and the county council's highways teams, who need to close a road or lane to complete roadworks, a financial incentive to carry works out during off-peak hours or carry out the works in different ways to lessen the impact on traffic.

In an average year there are 42,000 lots of roadworks carried out on Surrey's 3,000 miles of roads. Charges will be applied for works which cause delay at peak times on the busiest routes which make up 7.5% of Surrey's road network.

The council says the cash generated by the scheme will help pay for its administration, and any surplus will help pay for initiatives to reduce the disruption caused by works, such as new methods of engineering and trialling new materials for patching up the roads.

Surrey is the first local authority to adopt the lane rental scheme: the move follows successful pioneer schemes in London and Kent which led to new government guidance encouraging councils to adopt the idea in 2018.

Matt Furniss, Cabinet Member for Transport at Surrey County Council, said: "I'm delighted that this new scheme will go ahead. We're always looking at ways to reduce congestion on our road network and to keep Surrey moving.

"It is vital that organisations including our own, have access to Surrey's roads to both maintain them and to deliver vital improvements. We want this to continue, but at quieter times of the day when disruption for residents can be minimised, or by using different delivery methods to limit the impact of the works at busy times."