Agenda item

The Transport, Environment and Climate Change Select Committee agreed to set up a rapid review into Streetworks and Statutory Undertakers at its meeting on 30 March 2023.  It was agreed that the review would not commence until May 2023 to allow the service to settle following the change in Highways contract to Balfour Beaty.  The review was chaired by the Chairman of the Transport, Environment and Climate Change Select Committee, Councillor B Chapple OBE, and also comprised Councillors Brazier, Caffrey, Carington, Cornell and A Wood.

In June and July 2023, the review group collected evidence through meetings both in person and on Teams. The review group then met to discuss and agree its key findings and recommendations which were detailed at Appendix 1 to the Cabinet report.  A series of questions on Streetworks and Statutory Undertakers had also been included as part of a Town and Parish Council survey on Buckinghamshire Council services which ran from 22 May to 13 August 2023, results detailed at Appendix 2 to the Cabinet report.

Cabinet was asked to consider the recommendations of the Select Committee Review.

RESOLVED –

(1)               That the Transport, Environment and Climate Change Select Committee Review Group, as well as the supporting officers, be thanked for their work and subsequent recommendations.

(2)               That Cabinet’s responses to the Review report and recommendations, as set out and circulated to Members, be AGREED.

Note: a complete breakdown of the scrutiny recommendations and Cabinet’s responses can be found here.

The Transport, Environment and Climate Change Select Committee agreed to set up a rapid review into Streetworks and Statutory Undertakers at its meeting on 30 March 2023.  It was agreed that the review would not commence until May 2023 to allow the service to settle following the change in Highways contract to Balfour Beaty.  The review was chaired by the Chairman of the Transport, Environment and Climate Change Select Committee, Councillor B Chapple OBE, and also comprised Councillors Brazier, Caffrey, Carington, Cornell and A Wood.

In June and July 2023, the review group collected evidence through meetings both in person and on Teams. The review group then met to discuss and agree its key findings and recommendations which were detailed at Appendix 1 to the Cabinet report.  A series of questions on Streetworks and Statutory Undertakers had also been included as part of a Town and Parish Council survey on Buckinghamshire Council services which ran from 22 May to 13 August 2023.

The Chairman of the TECC Committee reported that inMarch 2023, the Select Committee agreed a scope to review Streetworks and Statutory Undertakers in Buckinghamshire. He was joined in this by five other colleagues: Cllrs Peter Brazier, Mick Caffrey, Robert Carington, Caroline Cornell and Andrew Wood. All members brought valuable experience with examples of utility companies operating in their local wards. It was highlighted that permit applications had increased from 22,000 in 2019/20 to 65,000 in 2022/23 – effectively trebling the team’s workload. It was agreed to not commence the review until after the new Highways contract had settled down as the Streetworks Team had been transferred inhouse from Ringway Jacobs. The group held a series of evidence-gathering meetings in June and July which included an in-person meeting with a sample of utility companies that operate on the network. The Committee also reached out to Town and Parish Councils by including questions on Streetworks in a survey that was open during the summer.The 10 recommendations were spread across different themes: Streetworks Team, Statutory Undertakers, Communication and Lobbying.

The two recommendations that the Chairman wanted to highlight were core sampling to look at the materials Utility Companies were putting into the ground to ensure it was of the required standard, particularly as 43 utility companies operated on the network. The other recommendation was that the Council needed to lobby the Government to impose a higher fixed term penalty notice fine as it had not been increased for 20 years and therefore there was no incentive for statutory undertakers to comply with permit conditions. The Leader commented that in the last three years there had been a threefold increase in the number of permit requests which now stood at 65,000 in 2022/23. Many residents complained about these works to the Council but it was the Utility Companies who were at fault.

The Chairman extended his thanks to colleagues on the review group, the organisations and Local Authorities they spoke with, the scrutiny officer Chris Ward, Derek Carpenter (Streetworks Manager), and the Cabinet Member for Transport for his support.

During discussion the following points were made by Cabinet Members who praised the Select Committee for their excellent report :-

• Support was given for lobbying the Government on higher Fixed Term Penalty Notices.
• Reference was made to the impact on Buckinghamshire with HS2 and East/West Rail where long term road closures had caused concern for residents and often blame was directed at the Council. There were many different companies accessing the highway and it was important to have a co-ordinated approach to make sure diversions were as efficient as possible and that works were scheduled effectively across all companies to ensure the minimum disruption. There should be a red flag system and sense check particularly for those areas who had additional long term statutory undertakers in their area such as HS2 and East/West Rail. In relation to the red flag system the Chairman of the TECC Committee reported that there were six officers currently in the team when there should be ten so more staff were being recruited. There should be improved progress with the new contract. A comparison was made with Hertfordshire who had 75,000 permits per year and had 17 officers, which was significantly more staff.
• Cabinet Members had met with the Road Minister recently at the HS2 site (Chesham and Amersham) discussing a road that should have been closed for 5 hours but it ended up being six days which impacted 20,000 vehicle movements. Emphasis was made on one team doing a specific job rather than handing over the job each day which caused delays. The Leader also commented that it was frustrating when roads were closed but no work was taking place and also traffic lights were not removed in a timely manner. Signs were often left saying the road was closed when it was open.
• Another Member made reference to works undertaken by East/West Rail where cars had to mount the pavement to get through the roadworks. A resident was also concerned that their carer would not be able to make their daily visit. There has also been another closure by Anglian Water on A41 where the diversion was not suitable and they welcomed the recommendation to extend working hours to evenings and weekends when often problems emerge. Some diversions were routed through private roads. It was helpful that there were some surplus funds to deal with this such as staff training, recruitment, legal action and accreditation but it was important to prioritise where this funding should be targeted. The Chairman of the TECC Committee reported that he would prioritise increasing staff and inspections so companies could be held to account. Another Cabinet Member suggested the funding could be used to monitor performance.
• Reference was made to taking legal action and a Cabinet Member asked about the costs of this also including officer time in preparing a case.
• Local Members should be engaged at the same time as the Community Board. The Leader referred to an example in Amersham where there had been early engagement with the Council and Members and they had taken advice on good diversion routes and Traffic Regulation Orders. It was important to avoid HGVs using single track roads. Another Cabinet Member gave a note of caution and the need to be clear in communications by local members that the road closures were not the work of the Council but that of the statutory undertakers so any complaints could be directed to the right organisation.  The Chairman of the TECC Committee reported that good communication was key in this area but important to do even if it meant that the Council was blamed for works which were the responsibility of another company.

In response the Cabinet Member for Transport made the following points-

• It was key to look after residents in the County and the impact on their daily lives but also those permits were also there to make improvements to infrastructure.
• The Council had refused 8,000 permits in the last year and there were inspectors out on the network every day trying to make sure permit conditions were being met. Reasons for refusal were generally related to there already being road works in the area. The Council would use all their powers to hold utility companies to account. He had written to them on the zero tolerance approach and any permit breaches would be fined.
• A number of permits could be retrospective as utility companies could deem their work an emergency where they were required to work on the highway immediately and they had to inform the Council within two hours. This compounded existing permits in place.

The Cabinet Member agreed to all the recommendations which are set outHERE with the exception of recommendation 5 (agreed in part). In terms of the use of smart temporary or intelligent traffic lights the Council have been in discussion with Utility Companies already and approximately 60%, mainly the larger companies, were already using smart lights on 2-way traffic flows. Technology was now developing so that it could be used on multi-way lights and the service would actively encourage all providers to use this technology. During peak times manually controlled lights were used but outside these hours some traffic lights batteries ran out which caused traffic problems.

The Leader reported that he would be happy to support court action where there was a good case to help install good working practices. He also promoted the use of one.network and producing a user guide which could be accessed by the public which would highlight the benefits and information that was available.

RESOLVED –

(1)               That the Transport, Environment and Climate Change Select Committee Review Group, as well as the supporting officers, be thanked for their work and subsequent recommendations.

(2)               That Cabinet’s responses to the Review report and recommendations, as set out and circulated to Members, be AGREED.

Note: a complete breakdown of the scrutiny recommendations and Cabinet’s responses can be found here.