Agenda item

Cabinet Member: Environment

Forward Plan Ref: 2018/202

Contact: Lauren Rushen, Policy Officer Tel: 07990 367851

Report by Deep Dive Lead Member (CA6).

The condition of roads has a significant impact on levels of public satisfaction with the Council and their local area. As a result, the Performance Scrutiny Committee commissioned a deep dive into the factors affecting public perception and experience of highways and the Council’s approach to improving this. From July to November a small group of councillors worked with officers to identify opportunities for improving the condition of the road network, tackling congestion, better managing the impact of street works and adapting our approach to maintenance contracts and partnership working on highways. This report has been considered by the Performance Scrutiny Committee and is now presented to Cabinet for them to consider and respond to its recommendations.

The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to:

(a)          Consider the findings of the Performance Scrutiny Committee’s deep dive into highways.

(b)          Agree which of the following recommendations the Cabinet will accept:

(1)          Ensure there is councillor input into the review of the Highways Asset Management Plan, and that this includes consideration of flexibility for local prioritisation.

(2)          Ask Cabinet to ensure there is a smarter process for developing a programme of work to utilise the additional capital investment in highways and that a robust capital governance process is in place to help shape this and improve risk management.

(3)          Ensure officers consider the impact on public perception when developing a programme of work and improve opportunities for councillors to influence this based on local priorities.

(4)          Ask officers to work with SKANSKA to explore a business case for greater levels of supervision that will ensure the quality of work remains high, including a consideration of how in-house resources could be utilised differently.

(5)          Ensure that opportunities to utilise staff in flexible ways are explored further with SKANSKA, so that the maximum benefit of having staff on site can be realised.

(6)          Encourage officers to explore more innovative maintenance methods and tools.

(7)          Ask Cabinet to ensure an effective approach to publicly publishing and communicating the highways programme of work is in place.

(8)          Ask officers to develop a more robust process for informing councillors of local road improvements in their division, so that they can advise on works that need to be prioritised and support early communication with residents.

(9)          Ask officers to ensure all responses to highways enquiries / reports through Fix My Street include a named officer contact.

(10)       Ensure direct points of contact are communicated and established for key stakeholders (e.g. town and parish councils) to ensure that local highway priorities can be followed up and dealt with more efficiently.

(11)       Support the Council’s ambition to become a Permitting Authority and request a report on the expected impact of this in mid-2019.

(12)       Support the development of a comprehensive out of hours traffic management provision to ensure effective management of the impact of major incidents and network failures at these times.

(13)       Support the principle of a having greater focus on enforcement.

(14)       Ask the Cabinet to instruct officers to explore a case for employing dedicated resource for enforcement across all Highways services/functions.

(15)       Ask the Director of Infrastructure Operations to ensure that a structured and robust approach to managing community engagement is in place.

(c)          Note that the Performance Scrutiny Committee have asked officers to report back to Performance Scrutiny in 6-9 months on the impact of a refreshed approach to community engagement, including evidence of the effectiveness of the Fix My Street Superusers pilot project.

The condition of roads has a significant impact on levels of public satisfaction with the Council and their local area. As a result, the Performance Scrutiny Committee commissioned a deep dive into the factors affecting public perception and experience of highways and the Council’s approach to improving this. From July to November a small group of councillors worked with officers to identify opportunities for improving the condition of the road network, tackling congestion, better managing the impact of street works and adapting our approach to maintenance contracts and partnership working on highways. The report had been considered by the Performance Scrutiny Committee and was presented to Cabinet for them to consider its recommendations.

Councillor Brighouse, Chairman of Performance Scrutiny Committee speaking in support of the recommendations set out the reasons for the review and thanked the councillors who had been part of the group. The Performance Scrutiny Committee had considered and endorsed the recommendations.

Councillor Jenny Hannaby, lead member on the Working Group thanked officers for their work and particularly Katie Read, Senior Policy and Performance Officer for bringing it all together. Councillor Hannaby introduced the contents of the report highlighting the significant themes that had led to the recommendations. Communication had been a key element of their considerations, both to councillors, parishes and the wider public. Enforcement was another key area impacting on the public’s perception of highways and their satisfaction with the service. The group were in favour of the Council becoming a permitting authority. The group had identified the real funding issues and supported the work to press for funding whenever possible.  The positive impact of dragon patchers was recognised but there was a need to find a way to use them in urban areas. In commending the recommendations Councillor Hannaby urged Cabinet to act to achieve the quick wins within the recommendations.

Councillor John Sanders, Shadow Cabinet Member for Environment and member of the Group commented that the Group had been careful that their recommendations would save or generate money or at the least be cost neutral. He did not think that there was a need for special costing in the longer term. In supporting the recommendations, he drew attention to the proposal that the Council become a permitting authority. Councillor Sanders also highlighted the importance of community engagement.

Councillor Ian Hudspeth, Leader of the Council, thanked Performance Scrutiny Committee for bringing forward the recommendations for Cabinet to consider.  Councillors would be aware that highways issues were the biggest part of their mail box.

Councillor Yvonne Constance, Cabinet Member for Environment, thanked the Performance Scrutiny Committee for taking the time to undertake the review. Councillor Constance thanked Councillor Hannaby for the summary of recommendations and for drawing out the key themes, that were reiterated in several recommendations: member and community engagement, better communication and responses, supervision and flexibility of staff/contracts and enforcement. There was an opportunity to celebrate the good work being done whilst looking at what further was needed.

Owen Jenkins, Director of Community Operations, commented that a number of the recommendations did involve costs and would need work to determine the costs and to evaluate benefits. He noted that as the Highways Asset Management Plan was refreshed then there would be member engagement, possibly through a Transport Cabinet Advisory Group. Officers were already working on increased information to Localities and councillors had been emailed asking for their priorities for highways work. Work was underway on the wider communication issues. On supervision of staff/contracts more work was needed. Increased supervision would mean increased contract costs and there was a balance to be found. The Directorate was committed to the income review and additional income had been included in this year’s budget.

During discussion Cabinet:

1)      Noted that only a handful of councillors had responded to the email seeking their views on priorities and that this indicated part of the problem with engagement, that needed effort both ways.

2)      Commented on efforts to bid for any available infrastructure funding and their considerable success in this area.

3)      Responding to surprise about the recommendation on the out of hours service when this was provided in partnership with other authorities such as the Police, Councillor Hannaby confirmed that it was more about the opportunities for integration as the service was provided from multiple centres. Owen Jenkins confirmed that there was a comprehensive out of hours service in operation and Councillor Constance paid tribute to the god working between agencies.

Councillor Ian Corkin, Cabinet Member for Cherwell Partnership, highlighted the important issue of enforcement that was a cross authority responsibility. It was a fertile area for cross authority working and he welcomed the opportunity to work with Councillor Constance and officers.

Councillor David Bartholomew, Cabinet Member for Finance recognised highways as an important topic but expressed concerns that the recommendations would carry costs and he therefore proposed an amended recommendation that allowed the recommendations to be evaluated and costed.

RESOLVED:

(a)          To thank the Performance Scrutiny Committee for their work on the deep dive into highways;

(b)          To note the recommendations and to ask officers to evaluate and cost the proposals and to report back in the Autumn to the deep dive group and Performance Scrutiny Committee before reporting back to Cabinet;

(c)          That those activities already in train not be halted or paused and that Performance Scrutiny Committee members and Cabinet receive updates as appropriate.