THE morning and evening commutes can be tricky enough at the best of times.

Most drivers celebrate the start of the schools’ summer holidays, knowing they will have easier journeys for six weeks.

But the end of term can also be the starter gun for ‘roadworks season’ as councils seek to take advantage of the quieter roads to get repairs or other work completed.

Everyone understands the need for potholes to be filled in and drivers appreciate underground works are necessary from time to time.

However, patience is lost when the very same road is dug up once, only to be dug up again a few weeks or months later, either by the same or a different company.

What MP Jake Berry is suggesting appears to make sense and is being piloted in other parts of the country.

Contractors are asked to pay a charge for each day they need to work on a road.

It would no doubt raise objections from the utilities companies but it would certainly concentrate minds and encourage better communication between them and the local authorities.

The overall impact could be to reduce planned roadworks by almost a half, as it has done in London.