Agenda Item
12 b
Cabinet Member Report to County Council
17 March 2016
Cabinet Member:
Contact details:
Councillor James Finch
Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport
Tel: (01473) 264993
Email: [email protected]
1. Winter Service
The mild spell of weather continues. Thus far, any significant adverse weather
has been characterised by strong winds and heavy rain rather than extended
periods of frost, ice or snow. Our current (as at 3 February 2016) 10-day outlook
suggests that the pattern of stormy weather interspersed with occasional short
lived colder periods will continue.
Nevertheless, we have now carried out 26 runs of the priority 1 (P1) routes and 9
runs of the priority 2 (P2) routes in the county, using around 4,000 tonnes of salt
and covering a total distance across our 37 routes of over 25,000 miles
For comparison, in the previous 3 winter seasons, the total number of gritting
treatments were
2012/13 - 123 P1 and 26 P2 runs
2013/ 14 - 63 P1 and 3 P2 runs
2014/15 - 82 P1 and 18 P2 runs
A map showing all of our gritting routes can be found by accessing
http://roadworks.org/, zoom in on Suffolk, then click on ‘Map Layers’, then ‘Driver
Info’ followed by ‘Winter Gritting Routes’
Whilst wintry weather may occur any time up to Easter, with the days now
lengthening, the likelihood of extended periods of severe weather is decreasing.
However, we remain ready for such an event. The salt stock within the 8 salt
barns across the county currently stands at 19,000 tonnes. Rotas for our drivers
and decision makers will continue in place until the end of April.
Our planning for next winter has already commenced. A date for our end of
season debriefing meeting has been set. At these meetings, we capture any
lessons from our experiences from the winter season whilst they are still fresh in
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the memories and feed these into the annual review of our winter maintenance
arrangements. We are currently thermally mapping our roads so that we can
identify colder and warmer routes. This information will then be used to inform a
review of the routes planned for winter 2017/18. This will help to ensure we are
not unnecessarily treating warmer routes on marginal nights.
Our gritting actions are posted daily on Twitter @suff_highways
The public can find out more about gritting of roads and pavements and how to
order a grit bin by visiting the winter gritting pages on the Suffolk County Council
website at:
https://www.suffolk.gov.uk/roads-and-transport/roads-pavements-andverges/salting-gritting-and-clearing-snow/
For further information, please contact Derek Oldham, Eastern Area Highways
Manager, Email: [email protected], Telephone (01473) 01728
652404.
2.
Options available for effective highway maintenance
Following on from the success of using spray-injection patching to attend to a
number of road defects (including potholes) during the latter stages of 2015,
Suffolk Highways is now looking at what other materials and techniques are
available and have a proven track record of providing effective highway
maintenance. Historically, temporary reinstatement material has a tendency to
fail at locations where there are sharp turning manoeuvres, significant traffic
volumes or working conditions make the task particularly difficult (e.g. due to
prevailing weather conditions or time constraints at busy locations).
For that reason, Suffolk Highways is considering a number of different aspects
of how it carries out pothole repairs. Not only does the material used need to be
durable and provide a reasonable surface for all transport users (including
cyclists), it also needs to be part of a cost-effective maintenance operation.
That entails clustering as many packages of work as close together as possible
(to save on fuel and transport costs and to minimise ‘non-productive time’),
using different plant and equipment (i.e. to enable more effective means of
transporting and keeping warm any hot asphaltic/bituminous material used),
minimising material waste by exploring the potential for re-using material
already there (through emerging on-site recycling techniques) and making sure
that repairs are carried out in timescales that are better linked to location and
urgency.
Although no firm conclusions have been reached on this yet, it is intended that
Suffolk Highways has a wider set of maintenance options in the future in its
maintenance ‘armoury’ than in previous years. It will also better ensure that
appropriate thought is given to any future investment in new vehicles.
For further information contact Mark Stevens, Assistant Director Operational
Highways, Email [email protected], Telephone (01473) 264994.
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3.
Contact Centre – report on recent visit and outline of work
I recently visited the Contact Centre in Stowmarket to meet the team and see
how we handle customer enquiries by telephone, email and social media for a
wide variety of services delivered on behalf of teams all across the council. The
Contact Centre has also recently started to handle customer enquiries received
via the new Web Chat facility on the SCC website which is proving popular with
our customers and is useful in helping to keep customers online so they can
find information about our services themselves.
Members of staff from the Kier Hub at Phoenix House have recently started
working at Stowmarket so that, as one team, we are able to provide more
information to customers at the first point of contact. Before Christmas, training
was delivered to the Contact Centre staff around the winter service (thanks to
John Simpson) and street lighting (thanks to Andrew Allberry). Some of the
Contact Centre team also visited the Highways Area Offices and we wish to
thank all those who have helped with these training opportunities for customer
service staff. If you wish to visit the Contact Centre to see what we are doing,
please ask. We look forward to having team members from Endeavour House
visit the Contact Centre in February.
During the next month, we hope to start recording reports of street light faults in
the newly developed ‘Street Light - Report It Tool’. The Contact Centre staff will
start using this in advance of a roll-out to customers. This follows on from the
introduction on a new Insight report process for enquires for the Street Lighting
Team at the start of January.
Looking back on 2015, the Contact Centre answered
29,000 calls for the highways service
13,200 calls for the school transport service
8,400 calls for the driver training service
4,600 calls about street lighting
2,000 calls about public transport
1,350 calls about public rights of way
as well as answering nearly 70,000 calls for services in other directorates and,
each month, provided updates to around 1000 customers who had made a
highways-related report.
For further information, please contact Chris Collyer, Team Manager, Email:
[email protected], Telephone: 0345 606 6171
4.
Suffolk Highways Reporting Tool
Over 9,000 reports have been reported on line via the highways reporting tool
since it went live on the Suffolk County Council website in February 2015. This
is in addition to over 13,500 reports recorded by our Contact Centre staff.
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I have recently arranged for an icon linking to the highways reporting tool to be
added to councillors’ desktops, making it very straightforward to report on line,
in 5 quick and easy steps:
1.
Read
the
information on
the ‘Continue’ button
the
entry
screen
then
click
2.
Find your location by typing the road name, parish or postcode of the
problem in the search box. (You can also use the "Find my location"
button in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen.)
3.
Click on the map to plot the location of the problem (you can drag and
drop to pinpoint the exact location)
4.
Complete the ‘Report a Problem’ form
5.
Click the ‘Submit Report’ button
The highways reporting tool covers the areas that make up the majority of
customer highway reports to the County Council, including maintenance, road
safety and traffic management matters. I strongly encourage councillors to go
online to report these using the link www.suffolk.gov.uk/report-a-highwaysproblem. Alternatively, our Contact Centre Team can take and log reports on
the highways reporting tool – the team can be contacted by calling 0345 606
6171 or by email at [email protected].
Some of the advantages to customers of using the reporting tool are that it can
be accessed on the web by a range of devices including computers, tablets and
smartphones. It is map-based, encouraging people to plot the exact location of
the fault, which is one of the most important pieces of information for Suffolk
Highways. Before adding a report, people can also check if a problem has
already been reported by clicking on the ‘Show Key’ button. Coloured pins
highlight where reports have been flagged and the latest activity. A more
detailed description of the problem and what action is being taken can also be
found by clicking on the pin.
Once a new report has been added to the system, it is instantly sent to Suffolk
Highways. Customers providing an email address when faults are added
receive a reference number for their report and email updates on how the
report is being progressed. Reports can also be supplemented with a photo.
Where an issue is not the responsibility of Suffolk County Council, contact
details for the relevant body are provided where known.
The main advantage to Suffolk Highways is that the reporting tool integrates
with Insight (our asset management system) and automatically and instantly
directs reports to the right person in Suffolk Highways who can deal with the
issue. This enables tracking and management of all highway issues including
during planned and unplanned absence. Issues reported via the highways
reporting tool are automatically plotted on the map in Insight alongside all other
highway activities (e.g. results of routine inspections, planned works, including
roadworks being undertaken by utilities, etc), thus providing a complete picture
of what is happening on our network. This contributes to prioritising work and
tracking our expenditure, as well as helping us defend highway insurance
claims. (Information on roadworks in Suffolk can be found on our website at
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https://www.suffolk.gov.uk/roads-and-transport/roadworks/roadworks-insuffolk).
We are currently working on a similar web-based system to report issues with
street lights, illuminated bollards and illuminated signs.
For further information, please contact Liz Chenery, Senior Quality and
Improvement Officer, Email: [email protected], Telephone (01473)
264270.
5.
Asset Management
You will be aware from my Cabinet Member report in December that the
Council is required to submit a ‘self-assessment’ questionnaire to the
Department for Transport (DfT), principally to illustrate the extent to which the
Council is following best practice in relation to asset management. The overall
score obtained in the questionnaire is directly linked to the amount of ‘Incentive
Fund’ that the Council will receive.
I am very pleased to report that the Council has achieved ‘Band 2’ status from
the scores in the questionnaire. This means that, subject to meeting any
validation that may be undertaken by the DfT undertaken in February the
Council will receive all available local highway maintenance capital funding
from the DfT for the 2016/17 financial year.
The asset management workstream of the Highways Transformation
Programme is continuing with its good work and has made good progress in
better understanding the Council’s highway infrastructure assets, both in terms
of what we have and its condition.
This increased understanding of our highway infrastructure assets has enabled
budgets in 2016/17 to be better aligned to asset need. This means that
budgets are starting to be allocated in a strategic way, enabling maintenance
funding to be targeted in the right proportions and at the optimal time to deliver
the long-term objective of improving the overall condition of Suffolk’s highway
infrastructure assets.
With an eye on the future, the use of highway infrastructure asset data along
with ‘lifecycle plans’ will help the early development of future programmes of
work, compared with 2016/17. This will provide Suffolk Highways with time to
effectively plan and efficiently resource works programmes, identify coordination opportunities and contribute towards providing and sustaining a first
class maintenance service for Suffolk. Equally, early programme development
will support an effective communication strategy, providing clear visibility of
Suffolk Highways’ works programmes to all stakeholders.
I receive regular updates on the progress being made on asset management
through the Highways Transformation Programme and will continue to keep
you informed of progress throughout the year.
For further information, please contact John Clements, Highways Maintenance
Specialist Email: [email protected], Telephone (01473) 265023.
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6.
Systems Thinking
Around 40 people have now been trained in Systems Thinking in Suffolk
Highways, including myself and the Assistant Director Operational Highways,
Mark Stevens. The Highways Transformation Programme has now been
‘recast’ with the following six workstreams: Contract Management, Integration,
Programme Management, Finance, Asset Management and Communications.
The Integration workstream involves end-to-end reviews of the vast majority of
services delivered by Suffolk Highways. Outputs from this workstream will feed
into and influence the Asset Management, Contract Management and
Programme Management workstreams. To facilitate this, the workstream lead
is working with systems thinking experts from Business Development to identify
priorities.
Work that was completed as part of the Babergh pilot, reviews of contracts and
the P3 processes will not be wasted but will be incorporated into the reviews.
Work will be cross-functional and cross organisational and will involve
volunteers and experts from across Suffolk Highways. Mapping workshops will
begin in February and work is expected to be complete by June to allow results
of the redesign to be implemented across the entire Highways Transformation
Programme.
For further information, please contact Liz Jackson, Programme Manager,
Email: [email protected], Telephone (01473) 260449
7.
Highways Communications Workstream
As reported to the Cabinet on 10 November 2015 in the report on the adoption
of new Highways Infrastructure Asset Management Policy and Strategy
documentation, there are five specific workstreams in the revised Highways
Transformation Programme (i.e. Contract Management; Integration;
Programme Management; Finance; and Asset Management). However, there is
a further, overarching workstream – communications – which seeks to ensure
that staff, councillors and the public at large are better informed about what is
happening on the highway network.
The starting point for the communications workstream was to raise the profile of
who carries out highways maintenance and improvement work in Suffolk –
‘Suffolk Highways’. Part of the task of raising the profile was to ensure the
purpose of Suffolk Highways was made clearer – resulting in the use of the
phrase ‘Your roads, our business’. This ‘branding’ is being taken forward on all
new personal protective equipment (PPE), Suffolk Highways’ vehicles, email
communications and on some of the County Council’s website pages for
‘highways’. The branding and associated imagery have begun to appear on
information leaflets (e.g. for the Ipswich railway station improvements) and on
messages, both internally and externally.
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One particular strand of communication has been the more recent examples of
‘Message from James’ – in essence, communications to all county, borough,
district, town and parish councillors – regarding the asset management
approach that Suffolk Highways is adopting and seeking views on what
councillors think about the service that Suffolk Highways provides. I am hoping
that as many councillors as possible will take the time to complete the survey
questionnaire (based upon the National Highways and Transport (NHT) annual
questionnaire to a selection of local residents). By doing so, I and officers can
better appreciate the changes that people are looking for, as well understand
where services are considered as good, bad or indifferent. I therefore
encourage the completion of the questionnaire and appreciate the time taken
by respondents in doing so.
For further information, please contact Mark Stevens, Assistant Director
Operational Highways, Email: [email protected], Telephone
(01473) 264994.
8.
Review of the Anglia Route Study
During 2014 and 2015, Network Rail has been developing the Anglia Route
Study - a more strategic and evidence-based plan for rail infrastructure
investment.
The Anglia Route Study forms part of Network Rail’s Long-Term Planning
Process, which supersedes the present Route Utilisation Strategy. It identifies
the types of rail interventions needed to meet future rail demands and enable
economic growth over the next 30 years. The purpose of the Anglia Route
Study is to establish how rail demands can best be managed by making use of
the existing network and timetables before investing in new infrastructure.
It was anticipated that the Anglia Route Study would be published in December
2015. However, the pausing of two large rail infrastructure projects (Trans
Pennine and Midland Main Line), and the subsequent review of rail projects by
Sir Peter Hendy, saw the suspension of the publication of the Anglia Route
Study.
Network Rail is now reviewing the Anglia Route Study further to reflect the
findings of Hendy’s review. It is expected that the Anglia Route Study will be
published in the spring.
For further information contact Kerry Allen, Senior Travel Planner Email:
[email protected], Telephone (01473) 264429.
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