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Spring 2021 Edition
Welcome to the Spring 2021 edition of our Roadmap newsletter. It’s been a very challenging 12 months for the Highways and Traffic Management Service for a number of reasons. In addition to the personal and professional challenges around Covid-19 we have delivered our largest ever works programme. This investment in our infrastructure has seen a significant volume of additional patching and resurfacing carried out over and above a typical year.
While we didn’t see any significant snow fall the winter season was categorised by a prolonged period of cold following a very wet autumn. Despite these ‘freeze/thaw’ conditions the numbers of potholes recorded across the network are down by 14% and the number of public reports have reduced by over 30%. While these numbers are very good to hear, we continue to look at how we engage better with our communities and use your local knowledge to shape our future programmes. The two projects focusing on new ways of working (further details below) continue to develop and evolve, and we are confident that we will continue to maintain this steady improvement in our network.
There is a lot of information in this newsletter including additional funding opportunities and details regarding training for volunteers. We are also pleased to tell you that we are looking to reinstate the Parish and Town Council conferences following a year off. We really hope this newsletter is useful to you and your communities and would welcome your feedback.
Finally, thank you to you and the members of your community who give up their valuable free time to volunteer to support the work that we do.
Robert Richards - Highways & Traffic Management Group Manager
Managing potholes
Our new approach to pothole management was introduced in 2018 and since then;
- We rolled out the process Countywide in June 2019
- We now have 6 dedicated pothole inspectors
- We have assessed 65000 pothole reports
- We have closed 31,260 (48.17%) reports that required no further action, the biggest reason being duplicate reports (over 20,000)
- We've seen a reduction in non-actionable visits by repair gangs with productivity and efficiency up significantly
- Over 1600 patching orders, equalling 45,000sqm, have been raised for minor hand patching across the county, focussing on localised spots of deterioration or repeat repair failures - doing more of the right repair, first time
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New ways of working
Alongside our new approach to the way we manage reports of potholes, other projects have also been underway;
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Winter 2021-21
As the temperature is just starting to show signs of slowly rising, and having seen the greatest number of road treatments in April since 2013, we are coming to the end of a winter that, from our road treatment statistics, ranks as the third worst winter in the past decade (the worst two being 2012/13 and 2017/18). Our winter summary 2020-21 provides additional details.
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Additional funding for Parish and Town Councils
To provide further support to our local communities an additional £100,000.00 fund, for Town and Parish Councils, will be available in 2021/22. The fund is for projects/works that will enhance the public realm, which includes the repair and refurbishment of highway street furniture, such as lighting column, finger posts, seats and bollards. This funding is in addition to our existing Highway Maintenance Community Enhancement Fund which is available to support highway maintenance works and projects.
The funding can be accessed through our Highway Maintenance Community Enhancement Fund (HMCEF) application proces
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Community works and projects
Are you interested in carrying out projects in your community? Would you like to see examples of community projects undertaken by other parish and town councils in Devon?
If the answer to the above is yes, please take a look at our communities webpages. Here you will find information on our road warden, snow warden and parish paths partnership (P3) schemes as well as a selection of case studies providing details of projects undertaken that have been supported by our Highway Maintenance Community Enhancement Fund (HMCEF).
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Free training
Devon County Council continue to provide free training to volunteers who wish to help with projects in their communities. The following is a list of courses that we currently fund;
- Highway Safety Awareness Training (e-learning)
- Traffic Management for Community Events
- SWQR Unit 2 Signing, lighting and guarding (chapter 8)
The above list is not exhaustive and the level of training required will depend on the project that you would like to undertake. Please discuss any potential projects with your Neighbourhood Highway Officer and we can provide further information and advice on training requirements.
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Chapter 8 renewal training
Over the last year a number of community volunteers chapter 8 qualification has expired and arranging renewal training has been difficult due to covid restrictions. As a result the Street Works Qualification Register (SWQR) encouraged a period of grace for those whose card expired during the pandemic.
As restrictions begin to ease, a number of volunteers have started to make contact or arrange renewal training directly with providers.
Please be aware that, in order to attend renewal training, volunteers will need to have their existing street works card/number. If this has been lost or mislaid, please contact the Street Works Qualification Register who will be able to assist.
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Parish and Town Council conferences
Following our extremely successful events in 2019, we were unable to hold the conferences last year due to the pandemic. However, we intend to hold the events later this year and are currently looking at dates in September/October.
Further details, and confirmation of the dates, will be sent within the next few months. Please keep an eye on your inbox!
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Neighbourhood Highway Officers
Each electoral division has a designated Neighbourhood Highway Officer (NHO) who provides local support and information on highway matters. They are your main point of contact for Devon Highways.
Report a problem
We have a dedicated, customer friendly, webpage designed to allow members of the public to log a variety of problems, such as potholes, blocked drains and broken streetlights etc. Many local Councils post a link to this page on their own website, both as a useful service to their community but also to direct members of the public to the correct Council.
When a member of the public logs an issue, not only will the report be directed automatically to the correct department, the customer will also receive an email advising them when the issue has been assessed.
Please be aware we do not currently accept reports from fix my street as they often do not provide enough information to be able to accurately locate or assess an issue.
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Roadworks Information
Road closures, diversions and other roadworks can often cause concern within local communities. However, there are a number of webpages available that can help you find out what is happening in your local area;
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Devon County Council's roadworks map displays present, future and completed works
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One.network shows all planned works by utility companies, DCC and others, alongside the diversion routes and other useful information. You can set up alerts to warn you when new works are scheduled in a specific area
- We also publish a number of dedicated webpages for works which have the potential to cause major disruption and for major schemes, the majority of which have received substantial investment from the Department of Transport
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Parish and Town Council webpages
A number of years ago, we developed a dedicated parish and town council website with the intention of creating a "one stop shop" for parish and town council's to easily access highway information.
Do you use this webpage? Were you aware of it? What else would you like to see on it? Please use the feedback form on the site to let us know.
Previous copies of Roadmap are available on the website.
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Parish Paths Partnership Scheme
The Parish Paths Partnerships Scheme (also known as the P3 scheme) is an initiative to ensure that the rights of way network is properly maintained and well publicised. It has the support of the National Association of Local Councils and is Devon County Council funded.
For more information, and for copies of the newsletter, please visit our Parish Paths Partnership webpages.
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Pinpoint Devon is a searchable online directory of community services available in Devon. Parish and Town Council contact information is listed alongside other local services, groups and information on just about anything from careers, through to hobbies and learning.
The details on Pinpoint are those that we will use when we contact Parish and Town Councils directly. All those registered on Pinpoint have recently been contacted to ensure that all details are up to date. If you did not get this email, or are not registered, please visit the page for further information.
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Reduce your waste!
Our colleagues in Waste Management would like to let you know about a couple of initiatives to help residents reduce the amount of waste they throw away;
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