Agenda item

(1)       The Director’s Update report looked back on the last 12 months and highlighted some of the achievements from Kent Highway Services’ hard working staff in Kent County Council, Ringway, Jacobs and TSUK.  Staff from across the Alliance had been involved in organisational review for well over a year yet still delivered some significant, innovative improvements to service delivery, and kept pace with the challenging performance targets that were now published monthly in the report to all Members.

(2)       The Alliance Board had developed a key set of indicators that reflected the broad range of services delivered by KHS and that helped put focus and drive into the service.  In the last 12 months staff had worked hard to come to grips with a stronger performance culture and, whilst progress had been made, more needed to be done and the new organisation structure for KHS would help to deliver further improvements.  Some key successes to note were:-

§         continued good number of compliments KHS received, averaging at almost 50 per month

§         significant reduction in streetlight repair time from 17 days in April to 5 days in the most recent set of results.  Over 5,000 faults were fixed each month.

§         98% achievement of response to emergency sites within 2 hours

§         significant improvement in 12 months of letters answered within 10 days.  In September 2007 we achieved only 50% within target, we were now achieving over 80%.  We receive nearly 1200 letters each month.

§         Regular achievement of over 85% of all waste material being recycled.

(3)       As the seven new teams became fully operational in April next year the Director planned to drive the performance and evidence based working within KHS, and recognised that there were some parts of the service that were not yet measured sufficiently to provide the information to understand how service delivery could be improved.

(4)       In order to help in the understanding of the accountabilities and responsibilities of the seven new service groups, set out below were some examples of service improvements or actions over the last year:-

Community Operations (Kim Hills)

§      We had placed the order with Commercial Services for over 60 new vans that could run on 30% bio-diesel fuel and raised the profile of our inspectors and enforcement officers across Kent.

§      We were setting up a training programme for our highway inspectors to ensure they had a formal qualification and gained the recognition they deserved for the key role they played.

§      We have trialled a new ‘quiet’ surfacing on the A26 in Tonbridge that had received rave reviews from local residents.

Technical Services (Norman Bateman)

§      We had replaced the streetlights on A229 Bluebell Hill with longer life, low maintenance lanterns that lasted longer and reduced maintenance costs.

§      We had started the asset data collection for streetlights, safety barriers, signs, trees and drainage that would help us get a better understanding of the asset and improve our maintenance regime and improve efficiency.

§      We had been instrumental in developing new national guidance for the management of bridges.

§      LED Streetlight pilot.

Countywide Improvements (Behdad Haratbar – acting)

§      We were on target to deliver over 500 maintenance and improvement schemes this year.

§      We had achieved a prestigious national award for the ‘Fastrack’ scheme in Dartford.

§      We had co-ordinated all Alliance partners to programme the resurfacing of the up lane of Blue Bell Hill in a weekend road closure early next year.

Transport & Development (David Hall)

§      We were recently awarded ‘Transport Authority of the Year’ – a great achievement.

§      We had successfully launched the travel pass for 11-16 year olds with a bigger roll out planned.

§      We were leading the way with school travel plans and had over 300 in place.

Network Management (Caroline Bruce - acting)

§      We were the first Authority to replace all traffic lights with LED’s

§      We had opened the Traffic Management Centre and planned to roll the coverage out to Canterbury and Tonbridge/ Tunbridge Wells next year.

§      We had launched the traffic and travel website with the plan to record all roadworks on an interactive mapping system.

Business, Performance and Communication (David Beaver - acting)

§      We were the first authority to have a dedicated page in a local newspaper to get our message across.

§      We had developed and published a monthly set of key performance indicators that reflected the full highway service.

Finance (Mike Palmer)

§      We had appointed a Head of Finance onto the management team who had commercial, private sector experience.

§      We had received an ‘extra’ £15 million of budget

§      We were on track to exceed our income target of £2.55 million.

(5)       Despite all the changes and uncertainty for staff we had delivered a significant amount of innovative and nationally recognised good work so far this year.  We were on track to re-shape the service by April 2008 and there would clearly be a period of bedding down.

(6)       During discussion Mr Hall informed Members that a report relating to Kent Freedom Pass would be submitted to the Board in March.

(7)       The Board noted the positive progress being made to improve service delivery and would support staff through the period of significant change that still lay ahead.