Waiting for the Government to keep its promises on tackling long-running street works is a bit like sitting in a queue at temporary traffic lights. You wait ages for a green light only to find no sign of activity as you drive past the roadwork.

The Department for Transport (DfT) announced two years ago that it would introduce a new system under which utilitity companies would have to apply for a permit every time they wanted to dig up the road. The utilities would no longer be able to dig a road without giving the public a warning, and would face fines of up to £2,500 a day for over-running a specified period.

Local authorities would be able to order them to work together in the same trench, preventing roads from being dug up repeatedly. The permits would specify the precise times when lanes could be cordoned off, and companies would usually be banned from working in the rush hour. They would also face strict limits on the amount of space they could occupy. This was announced in 2004, with a promise that it would be implemented the following year.

Since then a working group has been trying to pin down the precise details of how the scheme would work. The sticking points are the cost of the permits and whether the price should vary according to the number of days spent on the job and the size of the hole.

A DfT spokesman said: “We are in the process of working on the process of a permit system. It's a very complex subject and we want to get it right.” Asked when the system would be up and running, he said: “I’ve tried to track down the right people to answer the question but it’s the run-up to Easter and there is no one around.”

Part of the problem is that the utilities have been very effective at blocking or delaying any measures that would make them pay for the delays they cause. In 2003, the DfT held trials in Camden and Middlesborough of a “lane rental” system under which utilities paid up to £650 a day for each excavation. The idea was to encourage them to reopen lanes as soon as possible.

Yet the experiment found there was little change in traffic delays. Highway officials suspect that the utilities deliberately undermined the trials by failing to change their working practices.