Agenda item

11.15

The condition of roads has a significant impact on levels 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 presents the findings and recommendations from the deep dive for the Performance Scrutiny Committee to consider.

The Performance Scrutiny Committee is RECOMMENDED to:

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

b)           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.

c)            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.

d)           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.

e)            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.

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

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

h)           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.

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

j)             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.

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

l)             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.

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

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

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

p)           Ask 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 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 Committee considered a report that presented the findings and recommendations from the deep dive for the Performance Scrutiny Committee to consider.

Councillor John Sanders who sat on the Deep Dive group was welcomed to the table for this item.

Councillor Jenny Hannaby, who led the Deep Dive presented the findings of the Group and their recommendations.

During discussion the following points were made:

·         There was general support for the recommendations with members noting that a great deal of work had been undertaken.

·         Member involvement had been a key theme of the work of the Group.

Members welcomed the recent initiative to seek input from local councillors on priority repairs for their areas.

·         Providing councillors with timely information of road works and incidents in their area would be extremely helpful.

·         Members felt it was important that the Committee be assured that their work was being considered and taken forward. It was agreed that the Committee receive a progress report.

·         Referring to the resource implications of the recommendations it was highlighted the need to look at charging regimes and penalties for sub-contractors.

·         Members highlighted particular problems in their local areas.

·         It was suggested that work by utilities be added to the list of notifications to councillors with tighter lines of communication.

Responding to comments officers and Group members commented:

·         That although looking primarily at road ways, footpaths and cycleways had been part of the review. In the timescales it had not been necessary to limit the scope of the review and some areas merited a deep dive of their own. In terms of notification of works to councillors then cycleways and footpaths were part of the same process.

·         That member involvement in the review of the Highways Asset Management Plan would be considered and it was possible that a Cabinet Advisory Group would be established.

·         Officers had found the review valuable and were supportive of the recommendations but they would need to be costed and would need additional detailed work.

RESOLVED:  to:

(a)       support and approve the following RECOMMENDATIONS for submission to Cabinet:

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.

(b)          Ask 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.