Agenda item

Considered – A report by the Corporate Director – Business and Environmental Services to present the annual report on the performance of NY Highways, the County Council’s company for the operational delivery of highway services.

Some of the key points highlighted in the report are as summarised below:

·       The NY Highways Teckal company is an externally contracted set-up, but with schemes delivered in-house, allowing greater collaboration, more efficiency and innovation.

·       NY Highways in its first year of implementation has met and exceeded the expectations of a business starting-up to run the road maintenance of the biggest geographical highways network in the UK. The main success criterion was that the main customer, the public, noticed no discernible difference between the mature contract of the previous contractor and the new business start-up of NY Highways.

·       The pothole maintenance, street lighting and surface dressing programme was disrupted by the events of Storm Arwen in November 2021, but service delivery has recovered, with the winter service plan to ensure the public highway is safe and accessible successfully delivered. 

·       Current challenges include the delivery of gully operations, following issues faced with receiving new state of the art gully tanker vehicles. It is a target for the next year to improve the service through investment in innovation.

·       NY Highways is now into the fourth year of a five year plan now, with the hope during years 4 and 5 to establish further service transformation opportunities.

·       New methods of service delivery have been introduced, such as spray injection patching and a trial using innovative pothole techniques (Pothole Pro) to deliver savings with the same level of service.

·       The challenge of transferring the 200+ Ringway staff into the NY Highways Teckal was particularly difficult during Covid-19, as it was hard to get staff back together, but it has been well received.

·       There is a concerted attempt across the county for staff to fix multiple issues at one site, rather than having to make subsequent visits.

·       There has been a shift in the staff culture, with a willingness to take on board ideas and not just to see things from a purely commercial point of view. There is also felt to be a greater awareness of the public purse and of corporate responsibility amongst staff due to the Teckal arrangement.

·       Improvements have been made to install two wind turbines/solar arrays to store electricity for overnight charging of batteries that power portable tools/plant.

There followed a discussion with the key points as summarised below:

·       There have been occasions of road closures taking place without informing  county councillors and then not removing information signs after works completed, causing further confusion. It was commented in response that the local highways teams try to make local members aware of impending works as much as possible.

·       Praise for the surface dressing works that have been undertaken in various parts of the county.

·       A request was made to share details of drainage ‘hot spot’ locations with elected members.

·       Blockage of key road signs by vegetation.

·       It was asked whether the introduction of the new unitary authority would impact on the Area offices model currently used and the opportunity for councillors to build up a rapport with local officers. This is not intended to change from the existing seven area offices, with all of the depots based in strategic locations in North Yorkshire.

·       It was noted that the level of service complaints received is generally low, with the further feedback to be received through the roll out of public satisfaction questionnaires via QR code and an annual National Highways public satisfaction survey undertaken in summer. Despite this, it was felt the Highways service could be more proactive, with the ability to feedback easily using QR codes and citizen panels.

·       Calculating the carbon footprint of suppliers has been considered, with the idea to develop a carbon calculator to analyse emissions that can be shared amongst local authorities as there are currently variations in standards and metrics.

·       It was felt that roads could be sweeped more regularly to avoid debris building up on the carriageway. In response, it was noted that performance in this area has improved, with the sweeping of road verges undertaken by district councils, working closely with colleagues, particularly through the LGR transition, to deliver quick wins and better co-ordination.

·       County Councillor George Jabbour asked the following on behalf of both himself and County Councillor Paul Haslam: KPI information on the NY Highways vacancy rate and agency staff levels and the return of investment on off-grid measures. In response, Barrie Mason commented that more information would be available at the next review point. It was noted that staffing across the public sector is currently very challenging.

·       It was felt that a comms platform should be considered to improve co-ordination and lead to improved use of social media platforms to promote the Highways teams and the work that they’re doing across the county.

·       It was commented that when road closures are changed at short notice, it didn’t help people trying to plan journeys, for example on works to Selby Bypass that didn’t take place as planned. A possible reason for late changes to works is that surface dressing is weather dependent. Members were asked to feed in specific locations and occasions.

·       The what3words training for new members as a way of reporting in issues was highlighted.

Resolved –

Note the information within the annual report and responses to questions raised.