Report O SB/10/10

Highw ays Ma in tenance / Win te r Ma in tenance

1. The Overview and Scrutiny Board agreed that as part of the 2010/11 work

programme, initial desk top research be carried out in respect of Highway/ Winter

Maintenance in Torbay before taking the decision whether to progress to full review.

2. The Board requested an initial report from officers. The report ( Appendix A)

addresses the following areas:-

• Works’ prioritisation.

• Exasperation of poor highways by severe weather conditions last year, lessons

learned and plans for the future.

• Public consultation.

• Maintenance and repair budgets.

• Arrangements with utility companies regarding joint works and re instatement of

highways.

3. Further information gathering was undertaken through a question and answer

session with Highways Management Service Manager. The main areas addressed

included:-

• Rock salt reserves – last year Torbay managed to remain self sufficient despite

delayed orders due to the severe weather conditions. This year Government

advice is for 1000 tonnes of rock salt. Torbay currently has 250 tonnes in stock

and TOR2 ordered 750 tonnes in July with expected delivery end of October.

• Pot holes – in the three months following the second bad weather winter last

year, there had been a five fold increase in potholes. Re instatement works have

been undertaken to address this but there remains concerns that a further bad

winter will again find the weaknesses creating a financial and service area

impact.

• Public liability claims – further clarification was sought and it was confirmed that

public liability claims had reduced in monetary terms as well as quantity (see

Appendix B). It was further reported that as a council we are pro active and a

conscious effort is made to avoid liability claims through maintenance works, in

particular on the twenty year estates, prior to problems coming to the fore. Also,

all claims are plotted in order to identify trends i.e. a number of claims from older

people regarding trips and falls outside Debenhams. Inspection of the area did

not reveal any major issues but further investigation revealed the falls were

located where people alighted from the bus. It was considered a change of

surface may assist with balance. This has been borne out through the cessation

of such claims.

• Utility works - aligning work with utility companies reduces stress on the fabric

and foundations of the highways. Torbay currently meet with the utility

companies every three months and there is a three year forward plan to co

ordinate works. Works undertaken can be protected from additional works for

two years with only two exceptions – emergency and new service to a new

home. Penalty notices are served as necessary in respect of overrun or

defective re instatement of highways.

4. In respect of lessons learned from the previous bad weather winters, a report

previously submitted to the Transportation Working Party in April this year was

shared (Appendix C). This further addresses rock salt reserves, forecasting, gritting

procedures and routes, expected timescales and grit bins.

5. The 2010/11 Winter Maintenance Plan (Appendix D) is also now a public document

and will be presented to the Transportation Working Party on 29 October 2010 prior

to a press release.

6. The Scrutiny Lead Member for Pride in the Bay believes that satisfactory answers

have been given to all the points raised and that no further investigation is needed.

APPENDIX A

Title: Review of Highway Maintenance To: Scrutiny Lead Member for Pride in the Bay Contact Officer: Patrick Carney ℡ Telephone: 7710 8 E.mail: Patrick.carney@torbay.gov.uk 1. Key points and Summary 1.1 The Overview and Scrutiny Board has, as an initial investigation, asked for some

information on highway maintenance and consultations. The information was requested in the form of four key questions. This report answers these questions in some detail with the support of a number of graphs included in the Appendices.

1.2 Whilst the simple answer would be that there is insufficient funding to maintain

the highway to the desired standard and to the satisfaction of the public, the report attempts to demonstrate that decisions are based on a sound engineering basis. The report outlines that reactive repairs, such as filling potholes, is the most expensive form of repair. However, the Council has been successful in providing a safe network and defending third party claims. In order to prevent further deterioration significant funding is spent on the most cost effective preventative maintenance which protects the road. In most circumstances up to ten roads can be treated with a preventative maintenance at the same cost of a single road being resurfaced. However, this means that some roads which are in poor condition and in the eyes of the public are the highest priority may not be treated when other roads are.

2. Introduction 2.1 How is work on the Highways prioritised? There are two primary considerations in selecting schemes for highway works:-

1. The safety of highway users 2. Asset Management driven Financial Considerations Torbay Council has over the years, by conducting and recording ‘Safety Inspections’, and in the process identifying and repairing safety defects, driven down substantially the number of public liability claims received. Please refer to the graph labelled Appendix 1 . The graph indicates that the number of claims received in 1998 were 207 this has reduced to 67 in 2009. This process creates works that are termed as ‘reactive’ repairs such as filling potholes and despite our best efforts such defects are on the increase, primarily due to damage caused to the network by two successive severe winters. The graph labelled Appendix 2 shows the number of potholes that reached the safety intervention level and which have had to be repaired. The graph shows that the majority of reactive repairs are initiated by Highway Inspectors, however,

a significant number are initiated by public report. The Highways Management team encourage the public to report potholes as much as possible. The cost of filling a typical pothole is in the order of £130 and even repaired potholes leave weaknesses in the fabric of the carriageway or footway concerned. Therefore, the intention is to prevent the need for expensive reactive maintenance schemes by applying timely intervention of ‘preventative’ maintenance on roads or footways, before their surface deteriorates and allows the ingress of water into the structure. A good example of this type of treatment has taken place on Hellevoetsluis Way over two successive years, where the whole of this section of the Ring Road has been surface dressed. The cost of this type of treatment being approximately £2.50 per square metre. The timing of this type of work is crucial and correct application of surface dressing or micro-asphalts can extend the useful operating life of a carriageway by up to 10 years. The process can then be repeated again to seal the surface and restore the skidding resistance of the carriageway. This type of preventative maintenance is by far the most cost effective and given the general shortage of funding available for highway maintenance is given preference over physical resurfacing schemes or the full reconstruction of failed highways. However, it is only suitable for use on carriageways that are not severely distressed or rutted as the process does not add to the overall structural integrity of the road. The latter two types of works resurfacing and reconstruction are unavoidable as traditional good practise suggested that resurfacing of principal roads should occur after a surface has been laid for twenty years. Resurfacing a road costs £15 to £25 per square metre whereas reconstruction costs between £45 and £75 per square metre. Unfortunately, the funding for this type of capital scheme which is issued directly by the Department for Transport has been severely restricted for a number of years and is reportedly less than half of what is required to maintain our highways in a standstill condition. Torbay Council has a recorded backlog of such schemes with part of the known backlog being shown in the table in Appendix 3 . Current funding means that many roads will not be resurfaced or reconstructed for up to 80 years. This type of work is termed ‘planned’ maintenance and failure to carry it out would conceivably mean that a road would have to be closed or downgraded in classification to a Green Lane, restricting its availability to most vehicles. Accordingly there will always be a need to conduct works of this type, with a good recent example being the resurfacing of sections of Bascombe Road and Copythorne Roads in Churston, which were in an extremely distressed condition due to increasing traffic demands and the lack of suitable drainage. The shortage of funding has meant that schemes have to be prioritised carefully to ensure that the best use is made of available funds often meaning that the more heavily trafficked routes will take precedence and as a direct result, minor residential roads, rural lanes and even some high amenity areas such as Fleet Street in Torquay do not receive the attention that they warrant and deserve. Schemes are generated from a number of sources before they are included in any potential works list. The most useful system being the ‘Pavement Management System’ (PMS) software suite. This is a large database that

records information such as type and depth of construction, age of the surface and most importantly the condition of the surface as measured against agreed national standards. The condition information is collected by a specialist firm using a combination of vehicle based surveys (SCANNER) and visual inspections (CVI). The PMS system generates colour coded maps of the highway network which is a rough guide to the type of treatment required on a road. Essentially, green roads are in good condition with no immediate work required, yellow roads are showing the first signs of distress indicating that preventative treatment is due, whereas red indicates approaching structural failure therefore costly intervention work is needed. All of the selected roads are then inspected to confirm the choice of treatment and prioritised accordingly. Other schemes may be identified as planned works and recorded by a Highway Inspector whilst they are conducting their safety inspections, or occasionally as a result of a customer complaint. As the CVI surveys on local roads are only carried out on a third of the total network in any given year it will be three years between visits and as we know with a deteriorating network, condition of a surface can get worse extremely quickly once water is entering the structural layers. With limited funding and to most effectively reduce the rate of deterioration of the network, it is necessary to concentrate on the yellow roads using the preventative treatments with limited funding of the red ones for which repair work is not currently affordable. This is the area which generates the most customer concern, when you are obliged to explain to them why you are resurfacing a road that is in much better condition than the one that they live in. The PMS data is also required for reporting purposes and basic percentage defective information is relayed to the Department for Transport. The need to continue monitoring condition data is paramount if the Transport Asset Management Plan is to be used correctly. There is a national database called the UKPMS which may be used to indicate which authorities’ roads are in the most need of treatment. Later this year there will be a facility to link overall condition data to reflect the financial backlog associated with maintenance. It will also enable engineers to demonstrate the financial impact on choices of scheme which will be an invaluable tool for showing the consequences of further neglecting maintenance in the longer term.

2.2 How are we addressing the conditions which were already poor before the

Winter and have only been further exasperated by the severe weather conditions last year? Is there a plan in place to deal with this in the future?

The reality is there is insufficient funding and an investment of £40 million would be required to bring the Torbay Network to a condition that would be able to withstand the severe weather of the last winter. Torbay Council has received a one off grant awarded by the previous Government of £129,400 to deal with pothole problems. In addition to this grant Highways have match funded this to be able to implement a £250,000 scheme of preventative maintenance involving micro-asphalt surfacing. The DfT grant is Torbay’s share of a £100 million pot that was awarded according solely by the length of each authority’s highway network.

This micro-asphalt treatment is essentially a last chance ‘preventative’ maintenance measure before the roads affected deteriorate to a condition requiring the much more expensive resurfacing or reconstruction options. The works will take place in October following similar schemes in Devon County Council using the same specialist contractor, which allows competitive rates to be procured through economies of scale. Whilst £250,000 sounds a lot, Appendix 4 of this report shows the current list of sites that are known to require a micro-asphalt preventative maintenance treatment. Appendix 5 shows a similar list but with sites where surface dressing is still an option. The figures in these tables are indicative only, but show that there are still a significant number of roads that need treatments that are not currently affordable. These roads will deteriorate further without treatment and may become susceptible to damage caused over the winter involving water entering cracks, freezing then thawing, which is the primary cause of pothole formation. Therefore the answer to this question is that Torbay Council are concentrating on preventative maintenance in order to be able to treat as many roads as possible using the available funds but recognising that other roads requiring planned works will be neglected. At the same time the Council are continuing with the regular safety inspections and receiving third party reports of potholes and ensuring that all ‘safety’ defects are addressed through small scale reactive repairs. When next year’s funding provisions become known there will be a need to make a conscious choice towards either concentrating on preventative maintenance or to begin to address some of the backlog of outstanding resurfacing schemes. If we are to stick rigidly to the principles associated with Asset Management it will be the former, but the consequences of further neglecting failed carriageways may be difficult to defend. Member’s advice will be sought in developing the Asset Management Plan through the Transportation Working Party.

2.3 Is there public consultation before works are carried out that will effect the

public? An example is the kerb being dropped outside Churston library

Consultation is a very important part of the Highway group’s efforts to engage the public and to keep them informed. It is therefore the case that Highways always consult with the public where changes to the highway are proposed, however, the level of consultation takes account of the extent or likely effect of the change and can range from a simple letter for minor works to a three stage consultation for larger schemes. The example given of the works near to Churston Library would show how a three stage consultation is used as this was part of a larger series of works known as the ‘Hookhills, Broadsands and Churston Traffic Action Zone’. The first stage consisted of a questionnaire sent out to all residents in the area to gain feedback on local issues. From the information gained, draft proposals were produced and taken to a public display which took place on the 14th and 15th August 2009 at the Goodrington Methodist Church where the public were invited to attend, the schemes were also listed in the local press. Finally, the

public were asked to comment on the draft proposals prior to final schemes being put forward to the Transportation Working Party for approval to implement. Any Traffic Regulation Orders required are then advertised where objections may be considered in addition. It should be noted however that Highways do not consult on maintenance schemes as these are determined by road condition, however for major maintenance Highways ensure that prior notification signs are placed on site one week in advance and that the contractor notifies affected residents by letter with any contact details for the works. The details of major maintenance are also issued to the local media. In conclusion, any works which constitute a material change to highway layout or function is consulted on in a range of ways which is appropriate to the level of change and this ensures that the views of the public are taken into account prior to implementation.

2.4 How is the budget for maintenance and repairs allocated? Are there different

budgets?

There are two sources of funding for highway maintenance works, a capital allocation received directly from the Department for Transport with a further revenue allocation received from the Council budget. The allocations received this financial year for instance were effectively £3.9 million revenue and £1.1 million capital. However, due to fixed costs dealing with issues such as cyclic maintenance, highway structures, street lighting, traffic signals and winter maintenance the sum available for physical highway maintenance is substantially less. The revenue figure for instance has to pay for the following:- Cyclic Maintenance – grass cutting, weed control, gully emptying etc

£503,000

Winter Maintenance – salting roads and determining actions £248,000 Street Lighting – including £704,000 in energy charges £1,270,000 Traffic signs/signals and road markings £298,500 Other demands – bridges and structures, rights of way etc £70,000

This leaves less than half of the total allocation available for highway maintenance. On carriageways alone there was a backlog of almost £900,000 of ‘preventative’ schemes that have been identified (see Appendix 4 & 5 ). These figures clearly indicate the scale of the problem that the highway network is faced with annually when compared to the funding availability. The capital allocation of £1.1 million also has at source demands made on it for maintaining highway structures such as retaining walls and upgrading street lighting equipment. Its intended purpose is to be used on traditional structural maintenance schemes such as resurfacing and reconstruction.

In the March 2006 Local Transport Plan there was a section indicating the desired level of funding to achieve a standstill position with regard to highway condition trends. The figure quoted in this document was £9,961,200. It was claimed that this figure would by the end of 2011 prevent further deterioration in the network. The figures were researched and accorded with the best available information at that time and the document was praised by the DfT. However, it did not lead to any increase in actual funding provision and as predicted the condition of the network has deteriorated as a result.

For reference the actual funding provisions from DfT over the life of the Local Transport Plan are in the following table:-

Capital Received (£)

2006/07 1,100,000

2007/08 880,000

2008/09 964,000

2009/10 1,035,000

2010/11 1,120,000

Total 5,099,000

As can be seen from the above table, the Council have effectively only received half of the amount that was requested over this period and consequently have been faced with a challenging scenario as a result. However, this situation is by no means unique to Torbay and it is mirrored nationally. Evidence of this being in the annual ‘ALARM’ survey that is published by the Asphalt Industry Alliance. The survey report confirms the national issue that has resulted from a number of years of under investment in the country’s highway network.

2.5 Do we have any arrangements in place with utility companies to address how

roads are left following their work and to maximise the use of the works at any one time by joint arrangements between companies and us? Is there scope for better liaison in this area?

The following section is summation of arrangements required for the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991 (NRSWA) “Any undertaker (Utility Company) wishing to carry out works in the Public Highway, must give the Street Authority advanced notice of intention. The only exception being works that are classified as Emergency, which must be noticed within two hours of works are commencing.

An undertaker shall begin the reinstatement as soon as is reasonably practicable after completion of any part of the street works. If the reinstatement is Interim, they should complete to a permanent standard as soon as is practicable and in any event within six months from the date of the interim reinstatement. All permanent reinstatements must be guaranteed for a minimum of two years, and if the excavation is over 1.5metres deep, three years. The code of practice Specification for the Reinstatement of Openings in Highways gives details of types of materials to be used, reinstatement methods and allowable tolerances before remedial action to repair failed reinstatements will be instigated. The Handover Condition at the end of the guarantee period is not required to be of a superior standard to the adjacent surface. Street Authorities are obliged to carry out Random Sample Inspections, which are funded by the Utility Companies. These are broken down into three categories of inspection. 1) When excavation is being done 2) When interim or permanent reinstatement is being done 3) In the period of one month immediately preceding the end of guarantee

period.

Random Sample Inspections are to be of no more than 10 % of each category or not more than 30% of the total number of estimated units of inspection for any one year. Any other inspection carried out is at the Authorities expense unless a defect is found at that point a charge can be made. Torbay currently inspects in excess of the required 30% Random Sample Regime. Co-ordination meetings are held every 3 months where works programs for all utility companies and the Highway Authority are considered. If works can be undertaken jointly, they are discussed as a result of this meeting. Co-ordination of works continues on a daily basis as minor works are notified to the authority in conjunction with the major works programs previously disclosed. Utility companies are now beginning to supply the authority with 5 year programs of major works to be undertaken.” Torbay Council certainly complies with the NRSWA legislation and holds quarterly ‘Highway Authorities and Utility Committee (HAUC) meetings with the utility Companies in the Town Hall. During these meetings which relay problems or successes within the area, intended works are discussed and coordinated. As a result of the 5 year indicative lists of utility work proposals being compared with the Council’s lists of candidate surfacing sites, it has been possible to get works either brought forward or suspended. This process works both ways hence a good example being Lymington Road, Torquay which is in much need of ‘planned’

maintenance, but has had the work put back to 2012 thus enabling both gas and electric renewals to take place in 2011. This concession has meant Wales and West and Western Power Distribution both bringing their works forward, and Torbay Council delaying theirs, thus avoiding their works disturbing a newly laid road surface.

The Council now hold 5 year indicative lists of all planned utility work which enables them to within reason modify their own schemes to avoid early disturbance. Unfortunately though, utility companies are always permitted access to their plant, if it is considered to be an emergency. No amount of forward planning can prevent the necessity of allowing such access, and research suggests that however carefully an excavation is backfilled, there will always be some residual loss of the useful life of a carriageway as a result. With regard to the physical works carried out within the highway by the utility companies the Council do undertake quality checks by both supervision and inspection as well as by taking random core samples. The Council have recently invested in an improved trailer mounted coring rig which makes such testing both safer and easier and can test a higher number of Utility Company reinstatements.

Sue Cheriton Executive Head (Residents & Visitor Services) Appendices Appendix 1 – Third Party Insurance Claims made against Torbay Council Appendix 2 – Numbers of Potholes Recorded and Reported Appendix 3 – Resurfacing and Reconstruction Scheme Backlog Appendix 4 – Micro-asphalt Candidate Sites – July 2010 Appendix 5 – Surface Dressing Candidate Sites – July 2010 Documents available in members’ rooms - None Background Papers: The following documents/files were used to compile this report: Local Transport Plan 2006-11 Highway Maintenance Plan 2010

Appendix 1 Graph Showing Third Party Insurance Claims Made Against Torbay Council

Appendix 2 Graph Showing Numbers of Potholes Recorded and Reported

Appendix 3 Resurfacing and Reconstruction Scheme Backlog The following Excel Sheet extract represents a typical decision making process required to prioritise schemes. The sites on the sheet are all in need of attention at the earliest opportunity but there is only £105,000 available at the time of the decision. There are many other sites requiring treatment that did not make it to this final list due to Statutory Undertaker’s works, potential developments or simply the roads in question not being a high priority by comparison. The rates are for initial estimating purposes only. In fact at the time of this report there are 40 additional sites awaiting treatment, representing 21 roads in Torquay, 11 in Paignton and 8 in Brixham.

Appendix 4 Micro-asphalt Candidate Sites – July 2010 In response to the winter damage, a number of sites have been identified as being candidates for ‘preventative’ maintenance treatment. These particular sites are considered as being too far gone to receive simple surface dressing but are not yet requiring more expensive ‘planned’ structural maintenance work. The total number of sites that could receive this treatment presently is 53 that have been inspected. The cost of treating all of these would be over £500,000, unfortunately we have £250,000 available including the DfT grant, therefore it is only possible to treat up to 30 sites. Indicative lists are reproduced below, they take into account planned utility work, present condition and priority at the time inspected. Any such list is still subject to change, as carriageway condition deteriorates, so no guarantee is given to any one individual site actually taking place this year.

Appendix 5 Surface Dressing Candidate Sites – July 2010 For a surface dressing application to be successful the road must be in a reasonable condition. The treatment will seal the surface, restore grip properties and improve the road aesthetically but it will not address rutting or ride quality. Therefore the treatment should be applied regularly and early enough to prevent further defects arising. This is by far the most cost effective treatment open to us but the finished surface is susceptible to damage from regular vehicle turning movements, can suffer from water damage under trees or hedges and requires traffic running on it to keep it stable. Therefore it can’t be used everywhere. The extracts below are based on inspection data and again no guarantee is given that any road on the lists will in fact receive this treatment. To put the funding problem into context, typically we can afford a programme of up to £200,000 per year but presently have a list of sites that would cost £350,000 to address.

APPENDIX C ISSUES PAPER

To Transportation Working Party on 23 April 2010 1. Subject

Winter Maintenance Update – April 2010

2. Background and Issues

This report outlines the situation regarding decisions made for treating highways throughout the present winter season. It shows that some key decisions are driven by requests from National Government as a result of a nationwide shortage of rock-salt. The report provides details of Torbay Council’s own salt stocks, describes how forecasts are used, how gritting routes are designed and what grit bins are available. It then gives a timeline of events throughout the season, states outcomes from these events, together with lessons learned and proposed actions. To conserve salt stocks to deal with predicted snowfall, it was necessary to limit treatments to the Primary Salting Network only. This was in effect between 6th January and 10th January 2010. After this period temperatures began to rise and salt stock levels started to recover. However, between these dates icy conditions on local roads and footways caused widespread travel problems throughout the south west. This included some schools closing and two days loss of refuse collection services. Introduction Although the winter maintenance season is coming to an end, as a result of the severe weather events from Christmas and throughout January a brief update note is being prepared. Torbay Council’s fleet of 6 gritters have been far busier than would be normally expected and indeed 1 of these was unavailable for much of the intensive action period due to accident damage. Salt stocks have run low, at one stage there was only 178 tonnes remaining in the salt barn and until recently deliveries were still being controlled nationally by Salt Cell. National Government set up an emergency ‘Salt Cell’ system to control salt stocks and issued requests to conserve stocks by concentrating on primary routes only with effect from 6th January 2010. This report will discuss events but concentrate on experiences with both this and last season in particular, where the service has been stretched at times. Salt Stocks The table below shows the salt stock held annually in Borough Road Depot, together with the actual usage over the last six seasons. The 600 tonne nominal stock is in accordance with six days of heavy continuous salting. As this level of usage is rarely if ever experienced in the south west, this was accepted as being suitable for adoption by Torbay.

Season Initial Stock Restock Salt Used 2009/10 607 1 610 (to date) 2008/09 600 2 570 2007/08 607 0 142 2006/07 607 0 150 2005/06 607 0 175 2004/05 583 0 241

At the time of writing this note there is 251 tonnes of salt stored in Borough Road Salt Barn available for use. This level would be expected to allow us to undertake gritting of all primary and secondary routes 14 times, thus we are in theory able to cope with at least one full week of inclement cold weather with snow. The salt held in stock is primarily a 6mm rocksalt with a ‘Safecote’ additive this product has been used in Torbay for a number of reasons since 2005. The salt which is a Salt Union proprietary product called ‘Thawrox Plus’ is fully compatible with our gritter fleet; It allows more accurate spreading (enabling us to specify a lower spread rate), has increased adhesion properties to the carriageway meaning it stays in place longer, reduces vehicle corrosion and is considered to be more environmentally friendly than traditional untreated rocksalt. The cost of ‘Thawrox Plus’ per tonne is £39.79 between October and April but £36.60 out of season. Untreated rocksalt would typically be about £30 per tonne. However, there is also a residual pile of 10mm untreated rocksalt which is used for refilling grit bins, treating footways and in emergencies for use on carriageways. This stockpile has decreased from 180 tonnes in 2007 to approximately 60 tonnes presently. The question that the experiences of the last two seasons has raised is should we raise our initial stock level to reflect events, as there is a theoretical storage capacity of 3,000 tonnes in the salt barn. Although there was consideration given this year to increasing the level of stock, the predicted ‘mild winter’ meant that this was not taken further (see Appendix 1 ). Of course with the benefit of hindsight we could have raised the stock to a level nearer 1,000 tonnes. This will need to be reviewed further in light of the impending contractual changes with the JVCo being set up later this year. Reasons in support of increasing stock • Adequate stock would make us less dependant on ‘Salt Cell’

arrangements. • Salt prices out of season are lower than restock rates. Reasons against increasing stock • Salt Barn will transfer to JVCo. • Salt stored for lengthy periods may degrade and will need

turning over regularly

• Salt types partially determine type of plant used to spread it.

Future contractor may opt for pre-wetting equipment, therefore ‘Thawrox Plus’ would be incompatible

• May be forced/obliged to release salt under mutual aid programme

(There are photographs included in Appendix 2 of this report that show the salt barn at the start of the season and how it was in early January 2010.) Season and Forecasting The Met Office ‘OpenRoad’ forecasting service traditionally runs from 1st October to 31st March, which represents the winter season. Throughout this period (and occasionally outside) we receive weather forecasts and detailed weather information from Torbay’s own weather station that is located on the Ring Road. However the actual start and finish of the most recent Torbay winter maintenance programmes were as indicated below:-

Season First Action Last Action 2009/10 30th November 2009 10th March 2010 2008/09 28th October 2008 29th March 2009 2007/08 15th November 2007 15th April 2008 2006/07 4th November 2006 31st March 2007 2005/06 16th November 2005 10th April 2006 2004/05 14th November 2004 13th March 2005

The dates in the above table are those on which gritters were actually called into use; however a watching brief is always conducted beyond and before these dates. Torbay Council is part of a local consortium headed by Devon County Council and which also includes Plymouth City Council for the purposes of arranging a forecast service. The consortium agreement started in April 2001 and has used the Met Office’s ‘OpenRoad’ service throughout this period. Generally the local short term forecasting and updates have been reliable and accurate, although the longer range seasonal forecasts have suffered recently. However, the overall standard of service and backup that we receive are excellent and enable us to provide a robust maintenance programme. Presently the Met Office service models the expected overnight forecasts, which is when most of the winter maintenance activities occur and provides our on duty forecasters to determine actions at lunchtime. Changes to forecasts resulting from breaking cloud formations or unexpected precipitation events are given to the 24 hour Control Room who will in turn pass them on to the duty forecaster if the Torbay area is affected. This is not a frequent event but is something that needs to be considered to deal with changed predictions.

There are two types of forecast with a longer term 2 to 5 day one being updated every morning at 0900hrs and 24 hour versions that are published on the website at lunchtime. An example of the 2 to 5 day forecast is shown in Appendix 3 . In addition to the duty forecaster, there is often a need to have a pair of Highway Inspectors, out on the ground checking surface temperatures or approaching weather, to identify changes or ice formation. These inspectors are typically on call late in the evening or early in the morning as it is these times where weather events are most likely to occur. The Inspectors have a further duty to deal with water leaks or run-offs where ice can form in these locations even if the forecast is for dry but cold weather. This is an extremely important function and the present voluntary arrangement to cover this is stretched at times. As well as the Met Office forecasts, we are also required to have a Bureau Service to store weather data and to transmit details from our weather station to the forecasters. This year the company concerned ‘Vaisala’ have provided us with an excellent product that is accessible via the internet. This service and the web based Met Office service is a substantial improvement over the older version that we previously had, in that it enables full access to our staff and the Operational Services Control Room to coordinate actions or updated weather information. Part of the ‘Vaisala’ information is a thermal map which is being updated this season. The map enables Torbay Council to tailor its pre-salting routes dependant on actual recorded temperatures, thus avoiding the need to salt the whole network on occasions where the predicted temperatures are lower than, but close to zero. This tool is an excellent way to save wasting salt and it allows us to determine and fine tune the routes that have been developed in the Emergency Plan. The Bureau Service and Forecasts costs the council £17,500 per annum but the weather station will need to be upgraded and updated in the near future. The thermal mapping exercise which should be repeated every 5 years cost £12,000 on this occasion. Developing Salting Routes As mentioned in the previous section, the routes in Torbay are partially dependant on forecast temperatures, but also on road and route hierarchies. The routes are developed before the season starts and incorporated into the Emergency Plan. Whilst the routes normally represent a fine tuning exercise in the light of experiences from earlier seasons, occasionally they may need to take into account changes to bus services, new build situations and any relocation of emergency service facilities. This year there were early problems associated with a bus route that had changed more than once and which was subsequently overlooked and a request from Emergency Planners to treat approaches to specific NHS centres and resources. These were included in an updated route and will feature in next years Plan.

The updated thermal mapping exercise that is being conducted by Vaisala will be a useful tool in refining these routes and in assisting in decisions made by the duty forecasters. However, the main salting routes cover some 37-43.5% of the total Torbay network and until these are treated it will not be possible to consider gritting other parts of the local road network. The coverage of routes will always be undertaken on a carefully considered priority basis and much of the local network will either have to wait until resources are available or self help using council supplied grit bins. Incidentally the 43.5% route coverage compares extremely well with some larger authorities were 25% or less is the norm. For comparison, the route coverage of the nearest neighbouring authorities is Devon 20%, Cornwall 40% and Plymouth 42%. The Primary Salting Network covers 37% of the network and includes, strategic routes, main distributors, link roads carrying traffic from a village to a strategic route, bus routes with commuter services, access to emergency services, Royal Mail distribution centres and bus depots. The Secondary Salting Network covers 6.5% of the network and is based on bus routes that commence after 0800 hours and routes serving schools. These are considered for treatment at the discretion of the duty inspectors upon completion of the Primary Salting Network. There are only 6 schools that are not located on roads that are treated as part of the primary network. On completion of the both of the carriageway salting networks, there are Footway and Cycleway routes set up that concentrate on areas of high usage including town centres, other busy shopping areas and school main accesses. These will normally be carried out only during prolonged cold spells when resources are available. A Timeline is presented in a tabular form as Appendix 4 of this report. This covers the most intense part of the latest season until salt stocks began to recover. Grit Bins Torbay Council has 126 grit bins in present use at strategic locations. This number has been fairly constant since at least 2001 and this year with the prolonged intense cold spell is the first year that significant requests for additional bins have been received. During the course of January there were approximately 20 requests received for additional grit bins. All these requests will be collated and reviewed at the end of the season. Grit bins cost £300 each to purchase and an additional £150 to service each year. Torbay’s 126 bins (4.1km per bin) compares with Devon County Council maintaining 1550 bins (8.21km per bin), Plymouth 658 bins (1.2km per bin) or Bournemouth’s 60 bins (8.56km per bin). Typically the grit bins are checked by the Highway Inspectors at the beginning of the season and restocked as necessary using the 10mm nominal size rocksalt. Grit bins are normally topped up once mid season with the known high usage ones being checked on at least one further

occasion. Refilling a grit bin typically costs around £50 per time. This season’s prolonged cold spell has resulted in two unusual events, the first being the bins running out of salt completely, whilst the second was that there were many reports of people filling large bags or bins and loading them into vehicles. Whether this was for personal use or for taking to locations in desperate need of salt is unknown. When the salt stock was at its lowest reported level, it was necessary to stop refilling the bins to conserve stocks. However as the conditions improved and some salt was received from Salt Cell the bins were restocked with a 50/50 mix of sharp sand and salt which is ideal for use on icy roads or compacted snow. This mixed material was previously trialed when footways outside some schools were treated in advance of their re-opening. During the worst part the season there were in excess of 30 requests from members of the public for additional grit bins. Our stated policy is that grit bins are to be provided at known problem locations and following the two severe winters we now know where most of these are. As a conservative estimate we would be obliged to provide approximately an additional 35 grit bins to fulfil the statement of intention to address all known locations. However there are more scientific ways of assessing sites that are being developed. In conjunction with Torbay’s soon to be updated thermal mapping network a topographical assessment for provision of new gritbins could be carried out, with new bins then being supplied to ‘fit’ these rules. It is anticipated that this would likely involve the provision of an additional 125 - 150 gritbins. This may need to be developed further although some degree of caution should be considered to avoid over reaction as excessive numbers of bins can cause additional problems outside of the winter season. For instance vandalism, fly tipping or reducing available on street parking. Finally, consideration could also be given to the provision of gritbins on a ratio ‘per household’ in the higher altitude areas. This would require detailed consideration but approximately 500 gritbins would be required to achieve this on a ration of say 1 per every 40 households’ basis. Notwithstanding the above, the provision of suitable grit bin locations will be a consideration when developing or checking site layouts for new estates. Outcomes Public expectations for treating carriageways and footways have risen and are out of step with Government advice. Whilst Torbay has managed to conserve its salt stock in line with Government Office of South West requests, we have been obliged to limit our responses to treating main routes only. This has enabled coverage of some 37% of the carriageway network but prevented normal procedures such as automatic refilling of grit bins and assisting with treating

local roads. However, whilst accepting that we have been treating routes as per GOSW and RESILIENCE advice, a further consideration is that at times the provision of crews and in particular drivers, by Operational Services and also Highway Inspectors from Highway Management has been a challenge. From the ‘timeline’ table above it can be seen that conditions demanded intense activity between the 17th December right through to 11th January when almost daily treatments were required and on occasions two or three treatments in a single day. The resource issues associated by both groups have been challenging particularly as all people associated have been acting in a voluntary capacity. As a result of the decision to comply with Government salt stock conservation, there was a need to reject many requests for assistance from members of the public and at one stage some schools when the extreme cold spell hit in the early part of the New Year. This created a demand for manning all phones within Highways Management and for all people answering having to explain why no salt of resources were available off the main routes. Again this took place over a relatively brief but extremely intense period. Understandably many people were upset but most understood the situation when it was explained to them. The most frustrating part of this process was that most callers seemed to think that the event was happening to Torbay in isolation and did not want to believe that it was is fact a national event. In an extreme situation such as that experienced this season, people are normally able and willing to help themselves get out of difficulty. However, with the council’s own resources being unavailable, the normal reaction is for the public to resort to using salt that is supplied for general usage from conveniently located grit bins. Unfortunately the national salt stock shortage resulted in a request to conserve stocks, which ultimately led to a decision to not refill these bins until salt deliveries resumed. In addition to this request, there were many calls received where salt was being taken out of the bins, placed in sacks and taken away. There is no way in checking if this was theft or for genuine use elsewhere, as there were no stockists of salt for home use that could be found. This meant that even self help was not an option for residents. When the situation improved, the bins in Torbay were filled with a sand/salt mix. This differs from reported practise in other authorities where the bins were restocked but exclusively with grit which has no ice formation preventative properties. As well as services provided directly by Torbay Council other areas such as the National Heath Service suffered as a result of the extreme conditions. For instance Torbay Hospital had a record number of trauma case admissions when the freezing rain event occurred. It was reported that on 23rd December there was a record high number of attendances at Accident and Emergency of 277 people with some 50 of these attributable to falls on the ice or road traffic accidents. (83 of these cases were an emergency admission

which was also a record high for December). There were 236 people attending the day before, whereas the normal expected level of attendance is between 180 to 190 persons. As you can imagine the pressure of dealing with these volumes of patients and the access problems experienced by their own staff created a high level of demand on resources. Special measures were required to accommodate the peak demands such as a special surgery being set up in the Day Surgery Unit and additional patient transport set up with a ‘discharge lounge’ being required to reflect the travel difficulties experienced. There is one renowned example of cross boundary working where the Primary Care Trust in Durham contributed a large sum of money to the highway authority specifically to improve the provision of winter maintenance. Whilst it is too early to be able to comment on the overall success of this joint arrangement, there are anecdotal reports of problems in the lack of planned salt deliveries having an impact on service delivery. Therefore whilst the idea is laudable the effects may not be all that was expected. Torbay Council’s own Security Team assisted the local Primary Care Trust by supplying transport over a 4 day period to Health Visitors and on one occasion a midwife. This was done by using their 4 wheel drive vehicles to access roads that had not been treated as part of the main salting network. Another service area adversely affected by the icy conditions was Torbay’s surface car parks. It was necessary to cone off areas of these at times to prevent cars or pedestrians being affected by sheet ice. This was carried out at short notice using road cones but the reason for loss of the parking areas was questioned by users. With more warning and better signage this could have been explained better and this is an area to investigate further. However, the provision of additional grit bins in the car parks was not felt desirable due to the preponderance of litter and detritus that these attract throughout the remainder of the year when they are not in seasonal use. The final outcome and the one that is most obvious is that the salt stock held by Torbay Council has been shown to be insufficient for a full season without a significant risk of running out completely. Last year there would have been a theoretical 30 tonnes remaining stock without re-supply but that is only an observation that can be made with the benefit of hindsight. The present salt stock leaves the authority open to relying on Salt Cell for re-supply so a higher level would be desirable. However, with the JVCo coming into fruition later this year the question of controllability of this resource must be considered further, as indeed will the availability of the Salt-Barn and renewal of the gritter fleet. Lessons Learned The salt stock held in Torbay could be increased to an arbitrary 1000 tonnes and that should make this authority self sufficient.

Storage facilities for salt should be retained within the proposed JVCo. and the new company should be made aware of operational issues associated with providing this service. People are willing to ‘help themselves’ in extreme situations but the public feel that there are insufficient grit bins for this to occur easily. Council services should not rely exclusively on highway staff for gritting paths and playgrounds. The demands on Operation Services on keeping the main routes open will always be the first priority. Proposed Actions Highways Management will review the salting routes when the updated thermal mapping exercise is completed. Whilst it is believed that the JVCo may wish to redesign these routes themselves, the operational experience and the information held by Highways Management should not be discounted. Strongly advise the new operator to retain storage facilities and to hold adequate salt stocks based on the experiences of the last two seasons. This must happen even if a mild winter is predicted, as was the case this year. Review numbers and locations of grit bins. Look at ways of getting more visible assistance for residents in prolonged icy conditions.

3. Options

Option 1 – Review the location of the current grit bins and redistribute some to areas of greater need with no additional bins. Option 2 – Review the number and location of gritbins based on the requests received during the last winter season. This may result in an additional 35 grit bins. Option 3 – Review the number and location of gritbins based on topographical information and a locations known susceptibility to ice formation based on thermal mapping exercise and experiences throughout previous seasons. This may result in an additional 125 – 150 grit bins. Option 4 – Review the number and location of gritbins based on a maximum number of dwellings served. This may result in an additional 500 grit bins. Option 5 – Do nothing.

4. Service Implications

The provision of additional grit bins will allow the public to help themselves during extreme weather conditions.

5. Financial Implications

Option 1 – The total cost to move the grit bins is estimated at £1,000.

Option 2 – This will require approximately 35 additional bins at a cost of approximately £300 each. Therefore an additional budget of £10,500. Option 3 – This will require 125 - 150 additional bins. These will cost between £37,500 and £45,000. Option 4 – If a provision of bins was made per 40 dwellings this would require an additional 500 bins or £150,000. No budget exists for the provision of additional grit bins.

6. Legal Implications

The Council, as the Highway Authority, has a statutory duty to maintain the public highway and to abide to all relevant guidance and legislation associated with that duty.

7. Equalities Implications

There are no obvious equality issues as the ice affects everybody.

8. Corporate and Strategic Risk Analysis

These proposals support the Council’s priority of “Road Safety and Congestion” and the aim “we will work with the community to deliver improved transportation and road safety within Torbay.

9. Recommendation

Most importantly it should be noted that unlike many other Councils, Torbay Council remained self sufficient with salt stocks throughout this winter. The Council continued to grit in accordance with Government Guidelines. The Council will work with the emerging JVCo on increasing the salt stock. However, it is evident that the public expected further grit bins to be provided. Members’ views are required on the provision of further grit bins.

10. Author Tim Northway Tel:7914 Email: tim.northway@torbay.gov.uk

11. Responsible Chief Officer Patrick Carney – Service Manager (Highways Management)

12. Date 12th April 2010