Devon Highways Bulletin - October 2015

Devon County Council sent this bulletin at 05-10-2015 10:15 AM BST

Monthly staff briefing October 2015

Please read and cascade this bulletin to your teams - see guidance notes for managers on SharePoint

David's introduction

This month David focuses on:

Highways & Traffic Management Business Plan 2015-21
South West Highway's Restructure
Rugby World Cup

The A361 Link Road is closed eastbound between Newtown and Bolham, near Tiverton is closed due to bridge works

What's going on?

Finding your way

Archive copies

SharePoint

Contact us

Send in your news and articles

Staff Achievements and Reward Scheme (STARS) is open to all Devon Highways staff

The STARS Environment category is ideal to nominate our teams and colleagues. Has someone you know demonstrated an outstanding contribution to caring/managing our environment, and/or our natural resources? Take the opportunity to recognise a colleague/team for the work they do? If you are unable to access the STARS webpage please download the nomination form and email or post it back.

Well done!

Congratulations to Trevor Edwards who won a STARS award in August having received two nominations.

Well done to the following members of staff who were also nominated;

Bob King
Steve Dawe & Steve Brockman
Nick Bowles, Nick Mitchell, Colin Hicks & Mark Gibbs

For the nominations in full, please visit the STARS page.

Compliments

A number of compliments have been received this month, including compliments for Alan Jones, Ian Andrews and Simon Phillips to name a few. Please see our overview for a selection.

Please remember to forward any compliments, you receive, to our Customer Relations Team so that they are formally recorded.

Parish / Town Council Conferences

The above events are due to take place on the 14 and 21 October. Please see our article for information on;

The locations
The agenda
Invitations

Please ensure that you highlight the nearest event, to your parish / town council, during any forthcoming conversations / contact.

Christmas Party!

For full details of our Highways Christmas Party please see our poster or contact Charlotte Rowe or Annmarie Lloyd

Neighbourhood Highway Group update

This month's update includes;

Grass cutting
Carnivals and cones
Footway crossings
Local revenue works programmes

PROW & Country Parks update

This month's update includes;

Culvert repairs in Diptford
Timber removal in Ugborough
Stover Country Park Update
Battling weeds at the Grand Western Canal
DCAF Newsletter (Aug)

Asset Management Group update

This month's update includes information on;

Annual programme progress
Incentive fund self-assessment
Asset team day

Highway Intelligence Group update

Road Warden Scheme

The Road Warden scheme will be discussed, at the forthcoming Parish & Town Council Conferences, as part of a Community Mobilisation item on the agenda.

Those Parishes and Towns that have already undertaken the training, and confirmed that they wish to join the scheme, will be given their formal agreements for signing at the event.

Our website has recently been updated to provide further information to anyone interested in becoming a Road Warden, as well as information on the Community Self Help Scheme. Neighbourhood Highway Officers are the main contact for this scheme.

Peter Brunt - Neighbourhood Highway Manager

IWays Update

This month's update includes information on;

Time out extension
Works ordering
Customer search
Contact information

Urban Grass Cutting

See Rob Turner's article for details of how we are actively encouraging local communities to have more control over their urban grass cutting.

Pre Winter Checks & Grit Bins

An instruction was sent to the Neighbourhood Teams on the 10 September. This includes important information on the following

Pre-winter checks
New grit bins
Councillor funded bins
Refills
Replacement bins

Tree Safety Management Budget (ELM)

Please see Steve Pickard's article which provides important information on requests for tree safety works and planned maintenance works.

Staff Directory

As we progress into the new structure it is important that all staff ensure that their staff directory entries are up to date. Please also ensure that you are familiar with the 3000 voice recognition system and voicemail.

Individuals are responsible for updating their own details and can do so by selecting the edit your details button on the staff directory page.

Lucy Barrow - Highway Services Manager

TTRO's

Prior to any specification to WDM build a replacement to the current TTRO database, Helen Frankpitt and I are conducting a Systems Thinking review, due to be completed by the end of October. Thanks to everyone we have bothered so far, no doubt we will be hounding a few more of you before we are done!

One of the things I enjoy the most about Systems Thinking is that you can really get to know what people are actually doing rather than what the process says they should be! Rather than see it as they are doing it wrong you can see where the process is wrong, amking people have to go outside the box to solve a problem. Sad as I am, I get excited seeing opportunities to fix it so people have a process and a IT solution that help, that helps, rather than hinder!

Roxanne Tandridge - Highway Systems Manager

Competition

Where are the forthcoming Parish & Town Council Conferences going to be held?

Answer here

Congratulations to last month's winner, Barbara Nickless, who correctly answered that we have 20 working days to respond to an FOI request. A treat is on its way!

Contact us

Contributions to our Devon Highways Bulletin are always welcome - we look forward to hearing from you soon. Colleagues not receiving this bulletin? Tell us!

www.devon.gov.uk/transportroads www.swhltd.co.uk

Devon County Council