Meeting documents

Jack Douglass, Business Improvement Officer, Transport Economy & Environment

Mr Jack Douglass, Business Improvement Officer from the county council’s Transport Economy and Environment department was welcomed to the meeting by the Chairman. He provided the following information:

• It was noted that the current reporting system for Rights of Way was quite complicated, unattractive and not especially useful on mobile phones.

·         The county council’s Head of Digital chose to redesign the reporting system for potholes and street lighting, which is the busiest area for online reporting.

·         The new system would be tested in December 2016 and would go live in January 2017, it would allow issues to be reported directly onto a map showing specific streets, located by postcode. This will be called Maintain My Street. Updates will be loaded onto the system for the public to view and updated as matters progress. The location of problems on the map will enable the public to view defects on their street already reported and this will prevent double reporting.

·         You can choose specific issues and view the status, such as progress on repairs. It will also be possible to upload photos and provide more information to a specific problem if the original report lacked detail.

·         This service is currently being tested to receive customer feedback.

It was noted that there was no target date for Rights of Way to be added to the new system, but would be considered if the new system was to be expanded. The Report It system will still be available for uploading issues on the Rights of Way network.

One problem with the existing Report It system was transferring web data to the Countryside Access Management System (CAMS). This is the system rights of way teams use to raise orders. Mr A Clark said the Report It system was registering the problem as resolved (or ‘Job Done’) when it has only been transferred from the web data to the CAMS GIS system. Mr Douglass said resolving this issue was not something he could resolve. Ms Taylor said this was to be addressed by TfB. Members were asked to check the system over the coming months to see if these problems were being eliminated and report back to us.

Ms Taylor explained that Exegesis had visited BCC last week to provide some updates on the latest CAMS system; and during that visit they provided a brief explanation of CAMS web. Volunteers can interact, log problems and track their reports. Parish councils can report issues and then take things back if appropriate, to resolve locally. It does seem to be an all singing, all dancing version of the Report It system specifically for rights of way.

Paul Harris, Oxfordshire County Council, was asked if they had adopted the Maintain My Street approach. He said yes, but rights of way were separate and had moved fully to CAMs Web. This system provides better public interaction and the web interface is much better than the old system. Mr Harris offered an open invitation to BCC or the LAF to come to Oxfordshire to see CAMs Web in action.

Mr Thorns asked how many members of the public access the system in a week. Mr Douglass said it can be hundreds, depending on the time of year.

Mr Worrell, member of the public, from the British Driving Society asked if the system would be postcode orientated. Mr Douglass confirmed, yes, and by street name, but not currently by parish, but they can look to develop. It was asked, what happens if you add ‘Footpath 12’? Mr Douglass wasn’t sure, but if/when rights of way are included in the new system, these are the conversations that needed to take place.

Mr Worrell also said the council should look at what Hampshire had done, combining the Lists of Streets and rights of way on one map. People who are looking up rights of way can see whether it's a highway or not. This is also a great help for people doing research into lost rights of way. The lady’s name in Hampshire is Gale Johnson.

The chairman asked if footways on the vehicular highway network were being included in the Maintain My Street system? Mr Douglass was not sure at present.

Cllr Whyte noted that most residents were not aware of the technical difference between a footway and a right of way; they just want the count council to deal with it.

A LAF member asked if there were any plans to do a press release so the public know there is a new system in place which would assist them. Mr Douglass said, yes, absolutely and went on to explain that conversations had been had with parishes regarding soft marketing and the cabinet member for transportation, Cllr Shaw, would take the lead on communication after the development stage had concluded. Parishes will form an important consultee as many services are now devolved.

The Chairman concluded that the Forum would like Rights of Way to be included in the next ‘Maintain My Street’ upgrade so that all the benefits of the new system could be enjoyed by the many people who report problems on the rights of way network.

Mr Douglass confirmed this was ‘work in progress’. They are looking to release what they are currently developing on the 5th December 2016 for public testing over a four week period for reporting street light and pot-hole defects. A decision will be made on what happens next in mid?January 2017.

The chairman confirmed the Forum would mark that up in the diary for future lobbying.