Welcome to Roadmap, our highways dedicated newsletter for Parish & Town Councils
Welcome to the Winter edition of Roadmap. As for everyone, 2020 has been a difficult year for Devon County Council and the Highways and Traffic Management Service.
Despite the ongoing challenges we face due to Covid-19, I’m pleased that we have continued to make significant progress on our change agenda. This important work will provide better links with our communities and allow them to have a greater influence in the work we do across our whole network. The changes we have made to our pothole process have started to show improvements in our response times and reductions in reported numbers. By the middle of 2020 we hope to have rolled out a new way of approaching potholes and other safety defects that will continue these improvements.
We hope to issue more editions of Roadmap next year to keep you up to date with our progress.
Robert Richards - Highways and Traffic Management Group Manager
Winter Service
Drainage responsibilities
Earlier this year we wrote to you to offer some guidance around the area of responsibility for ditch maintenance. We know that drainage of the highway network is an area of focus for many communities and we have put a lot of effort into improving our service over the last 12 months but recognise there is much more to do. We are continuing to work with local land owners and local communities, particularly where there are shared responsibilities.
We have been aware that in some cases our limited budgets have been used to undertake works that are the responsibility of others. Unfortunately we are unable to provide a definitive view, but in the majority of cases the responsibility for ditch maintenance rests with the adjacent land owner. Please see our drainage responsibility diagram that provides a simplified overview of drainage responsibilities, we hope you find this information helpful and are able to use it within your communities to support us as we continue to maintain the drainage systems within the highway.
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Highway Maintenance Community Enhancement Fund (HMCEF)
The third assessment round of 2020/21 closed on the 30 November 2020 and all applications will be assessed in the New Year. Applications received between December and February will be reviewed in March. If you wish to apply please use our online application form.
A summary of successful HMCEF applications, received during 2019/20, is available to view on our community webpages.
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Community Warden Facebook Group
A Facebook group has been created to provide an area to share examples of local projects, discuss ideas for future projects and collaborative working and to seek advice and guidance.
All parishes and town councils, signed up to the road warden scheme, and Snow Wardens, who have provided us with an email address, have been invited to the group.
If you would like to become a member please let us know (an email address is required).
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Road Wardens - Chapter 8 Signing, Lighting and Guarding renewals
A further update has been provided by the Streetworks Qualification Register (SWQR) to advise that, due to the difficulties in renewing street works cards owing to reduced capacity of assessment centres as a result of Covid-19 restrictions, some cards will lapse, or replacement cards may not be available through no fault of the holders. They have therefore asked that street authorities bear this in mind, regarding card enforcement policy, up until March 2021.
As such, if your accreditation has expired since March 2020 or is due to expire before March 2021, there is a six month grace period that allows you to continue to carry out your role as a Road Warden.
Grit bins
We are not routinely refilling grit bins this year so please ensure that you advise us of any empty or damaged grit bins, or any with contents that are unusable via our report a problem page. Where it can be achieved, and to maximise efficiency, it is preferable that all known bins in a parish requiring attention be reported to us at the same time, so that they can be re-filled/replaced in as fewer visits as possible.
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