Highways Improvement Plan
The draft Highways Improvement Plan was created using the recommendations identified by the cross-party highways review panel.
The recommendations were developed over a series of five meetings, with input from a significant Local Government Association (LGA) peer review and external input from industry sector experts WSP. They formed a comprehensive list of activities designed to improve the council’s highway maintenance work and provide an opportunity to:
- reduce the need to use reactive short-term maintenance
- publish a longer-term programme of capital works to keep residents informed of future plans
- maintain the road network condition and seek to improve it within financial constraints
- prioritise local roads and footways
- engage more effectively with residents and local communities
- increase our effectiveness and efficiency, maximising return on investment by ensuring that our highways maintenance and management works are driven by our policies and strategy.
- Develop a new Highways Strategy
- Refresh and update the current Highways Infrastructure Asset Management Plan and Policy and the Network Management Plan
- Introduce a three year rolling capital programme
- Develop and implement a formal “cross asset” prioritisation process
- Optimise the application of in-situ recycling on capital maintenance works
- Improve the management oversight and quality assurance of sub-contractors
- Refresh the core specification for highways defect repairs to reflect the asset management/network management plans and policies to ensure optimal treatment selection
- Ensure appropriate investment in early intervention/prevention treatments to extend the sustainable and effective life of the highway
- Ensure that the revenue highways maintenance programme is better driven by data and evidence, for example, use of insurance data, new technology and Realtime highway survey data
- Ensure that the refreshed specifications are set by the Council and are based around required outcomes rather than outputs
- Ensure that the selection of highways plant by Via is based on these required outcomes and the requirements of the move to longer term highway maintenance programming
- Introduction of an Operational Hub - Works identification and Specification
- Revise staff training programmes to increase focus on customer care, work quality and performance, better use of IT, highways operatives on patching techniques
- Roll out mobile devices to patching teams
- Update existing drainage registers and include: grip locations, ditch locations, sensitive carrier drain
- Deliver an enhanced planned periodic drainage maintenance programme
- Establish a planned priority programme of soakaway replacements
- Undertake enhanced inspections of utilities work near drainage assets - utilising Permit scheme income
- Update the MyNotts app to allow easier drainage issue reporting for residents
- Strengthen our engagement with riparian owners to support better drainage maintenance by the relevant watercourse owners (drainage champions)
- Develop a community partnership plan for neighbourhood maintenance to include: street scene maintenance, reduced weed spraying, reduced grass cutting
- Develop community-based approaches with local community groups and Town/Parish Councils to support local drainage maintenance activity that complements the work of the Council/Via (Drainage Champions)
- Reactive weed spraying trial
- Collaboration with district/borough councils to establish improved street sweeping regimes (weed and litter collection)
- Investigate alternative weed spraying treatments/regimes
- Revise and re-establish a parish engagement/lengthsman scheme
- Continue to implement and develop the streetwork management and permit scheme and use of street manager
- Continue to coordinate permits with different streetworks undertakers in locations and for schemes where there is public benefit
- Explore the potential for increased use of “service strips” in new developments, in partnership with local planning authorities.
- Monitor the approach to lane rental in other county councils and commission a feasibility study for the introduction of a Nottinghamshire scheme once the permit scheme is fully embedded (2023/24)
- Continue to analyse the most congested streets and peak travel times to inform effective permitting
- Develop and deliver a refreshed communication and engagement plan
- Move to a communications model that is led and directed by the Council to better support communication and engagement with residents
- Better information for councillors related to highways activity in their wards.
- The wider use of video – to explain highways work
- Improve correspondence (including web based automatically generated responses) to reflect a more personalised and engaging approach for residents with queries/concerns
- Closer links with community influencers such as parish councils, to ensure that communities are better informed about local works
- Update and refresh scheme information/signage to better inform residents of highways works.
- Move to a more outcomes based contractual model with Via
- Strengthen the Council’s commissioning arrangements to support greater operational engagement with, and monitoring of, Via
- Unify and better co-ordinate the Council’s commissioning arrangements for Via – Highways, Flood Risk, Property
- Improve benchmarking arrangements to help drive performance and provide proof of value for money with visibility for councillors and the public
- Undertake a detailed review of the division of responsibility between the Council and Via, covering: policy and strategy, core asset management and works/scheme/treatment prioritisation and the interface with members and residents, including District Managers
- Ensure leadership arrangements in both the Council and Via reflect the outcomes of the Review and the revised roles of both organisations.
