Meanwhile, 37% believe fines of over Pounds 20,000 would be appropriate for companies that dig up roads with permission or breach working conditions, according to the group's new survey.

Last year (2008/9), roads across Northern Ireland were opened to carry out work for utilities companies on 35,000 occasions -- almost 10% up on the previous financial year, figures released by DRD revealed.

The work was on behalf of the nine main utility companies operating in Northern Ireland -- BT, Bytel, Cable and Wireless, Eircom, firmus energy, Northern Ireland Water, Northern Ireland Electricity, Phoenix Natural Gas and Virgin Media.

AA public affairs head Paul Watters told a street works summit in Birmingham convened by Transport Minister Sadiq Khan MP that unco- ordinated street works can be bad for the environment, as vehicles are often needlessly left idling their engines.

AA studies showed that 1,000 cars stationary at road works create 28.32kg of unnecessary CO2 each minute, and that excludes larger vehicles which can emit much more CO2.

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