Agenda item

Simon Jones (Corporate Director, GET) was in attendance for this item

1) Mr Baker said whilst Kent avoided the worst conditions from Storm Ciaran, KCC’s teams planning and resilience during the storm and its aftermath ensured services continued as well as possible with the least disruption and impact on residents. 

KCC’s drainage team received over 400 enquiries between Wednesday, 1 Novemberand Monday, 6 November, of which 100 were classed as emergencies. KCC had organised for all contractors to be available dealing with the aftermath of the storm to clear blocked drainage systems.

Tree surgeons were also deployed across Folkestone, Dover, Thanet and Ashford and West Kent surgeons assisted East Kent to clear fallen trees and branches.

There were also acts of personal assistance. Highways Inspector, James Pesad happened upon a fallen tree in St. Augustine's Road, Ramsgate. Mr Pasad pulled over and put his beacons on to allow him to make the site as safe as possible. He then called in to have the incident logged and requested the Operations team to get it safely removed. Luckily nobody was hurt, but a roof was lost from a nearby outhouse, as was featured on BBC News.

The work of KCC’s highways maintenance teams continues to be noticed nationally:

• KCC won the Connected Parking award for our Park Map Project at the 2023 British Parking Awards, and;
• The Chestfield Tunnel Lighting Project had been shortlisted for the Caron and Sustainability Initiative of the Year 2023 and Innovation in Tunnel Fit-Out, Maintenance and Refurbishment 2023 at the New Civil Engineers Magazine Tunnelling Awards 2023. The results were to be announced on 7 December. The new lighting was to deliver energy savings of over 1m kWh per annum which is a 63.23% reduction in energy consumption; the equivalent to over 340 homes per annum.

Other completed schemes included:

• Preservation work on the A229 to avoid water ingress and oxidisation which will extend the life cycle of the road by 5 years. The work was done using a new emulsion, Finaphalt-G which is less expensive, takes less time and is more environmentally friendly than traditional surfacing methods.
• The team also completed a 4km full depth road reconstruction at Morsham and a stabilisation of the carriageway reconstruction scheme at Boughton Hill Embankment.

2) Members responded to the update as follows:

·       Officers were commended for their efforts during Storm Ciaran. Thanks were also given to Mr Baker for his communication and efforts during the storm.

3) Mr Hills said a newsletter had been produced and sent to Members regarding the environmental circular economy.

4) Members thanked Miss Carey for the work that she had done in the role of Cabinet Member for the Environment and had been undertaken regarding the environmental circular economy.

5) Mr Jones added to the update on Storm Ciaran, saying that while Highways were at the front end of the response, the Public Rights of Way team, County Parks team and Waste team had also responded to the challenges brought by the storm. The Waste team in particular were very proactive - all customers with bookings for HWRC sites were messaged to alert them to the potential for disruption due to weather conditions, with the possibility of site closures if weather conditions deteriorated. Fortunately, all sites remained open and fully functional.

KCC’s Insight and Development team had reported back on the initial evaluation of the cross-border policy implemented at the HWRCs from April 2023.  The policy had been in place for 6-months and to date had seen a reduction in usage by those living outside of Kent, of 67%

The winter service started on Friday, 20 October 2023 and was to run until Friday, 19 April 2024. This meant KCC was closely monitoring weather and road conditions to be ready to deploy our winter service fleet at any time. Demand on the network continued to be high for the time of year across the operational teams, especially considering the recent storms and wet weather.  Unfortunately, there was an increase in reported potholes across the county, due to the fragile condition of the network. Contingency plans were being drawn up to deal the demand, going into the winter period.

Since the amended contract with Amey at the end of August, Amey continued to review their service and performance, along with implementing changes.  This was to ensure they drove performance and operational efficiencies across the board.  The review included workshops with both highway officers and the Amey team from operatives up to senior managers, to understand issues from both a client / contractor view and find solutions to benefit all.  Any changes would take time to embed, but Mr Jones was hopeful with this approach that benefits would be seen.

Progress had been made in terms of recruitment to the positions of Road Closure Inspectors.  KCC had been able to make three offers, out of the four available positions, (which were accepted).  Due to notice periods, it was expected that the first three officers would start in December, with training to commence through until the end of February 2024.  Recruitment had not been successful in West Kent, where KCC had not been able to appoint to the role.  West Kent was considered to be a particularly difficult area to recruit to, due to its proximity to London, which often attracted recruitment through higher pay scales.  However, KCC was advertising for the role again and it was hoped a fourth Inspector would be appointed.

Although KCC did not have the designated road closure inspectors, work was still on going to ensure that opportunities were taken to drive efficiencies on the network.   The work that was done with South-East Water in Leeds was a good example of what can be achieved.  The project was completed 3 months ahead of schedule.  KCC was able to bring a coordinated approach and allowed others to undertake works at the same time, to further reduce later closures.  To undertake these levels of coordination and engagement, it had a huge impact on highways staff, which was not sustainable in the long term without additional resources and support. It was suggested that time be allowed for the team to embed and bring a full progress report to the March’s meeting of Environment & Transport Cabinet Committee.

6) Members asked questions and the following points were noted:

·       Utility companies were empowered under legislation to access the local road network.

·       KCC was not informed until after work has started in the case of emergency road closures. However, emergency services should be informed. It was noted that disruption was expected for emergency works as unlike planned works, notifications could not be sent out in advance. KCC worked with utility companies to try to minimise the level of disruption.

·       The new contract with Amey was being embedded so that service was improved but it was planned that lessons learned would be brought to a committee meeting in 2024.

7) RESOLVED to note the reports.