Highways and Parking Services April 2014

1. Highways and Parking Services April 2014 Presented by Louise Browne

2. Medway Council • Covers 104 square miles • Serves a population of 250,000 • The current value of the highway is £1,325,584,000 • 840km of highway network • Predominately urban network in residential areas

3. The TeamHighways (including Capital Projects and Adoptions) and Parking Services

4. Reporting Highway Issues • All requests for service must be reported via our Customer Contact Team. • (01634) 333333 • www.medway.gov.uk– following Transport and Streets or using the A-Z of services • customer.first@medway.gov.uk • Our Customer Contact team work until 8am - 8pm (weekdays) and 9am – 1pm (Saturday). For emergencies outside of these hours Medway Council’s Helpline can be contacted on (01634) 304400. • There are also Community Hubs and Contact points where you can visit in person (see website for list) • Our Customer Contact team record all the details of your enquiry and your contact details on a customer management system

5. How Highways receive customer enquiries • Once the Customer Contact Officer has logged an individual issue, this interacts with a bespoke asset management system, which is used by the Highways Team. • The asset management system is programmed to channel enquiries, to the correct Officer, in Highways, for action. • It does this by taking into account the issue that has been reported and the individual location of that issue and then directs the query into the workload of the relevant officer. • Therefore, the information given at the first point of contact is imperative and precise details and locations will enable us to deal with queries more effectively and efficiently.

6. Dealing with your Queries • There is such a wide variety of queries and each has its own designated response time. • Some issues are more urgent and our Customer Contact Team are trained to pass these direct to Officers for action. These are situations where there is an immediate threat to life or property. • Individual Officers prioritise their work, according to what they have received. This is where the importance of giving as much information and the correct information, will help aid us in determining those issues which may need a quicker response.

7. Highways Responsive Maintenance are responsible for maintaining the current highway by:- • Undertaking a rolling programme of statutory safety inspections on the highway. • Responding to requests from customers regarding alleged defects. • Inspecting the Public Right of Way network • Processing applications for vehicle crossovers and monitoring installations. • Maintaining the national gazetteer by updating all the information about Medway’s streets. • Maintaining and repairing street lights and illuminated bollards and signs on the highway • For the naming and numbering of streets in Medway

8. Highways Planned Maintenance are responsible for maintaining the current highway by:- • All planned footway and carriageway schemes • Programmed gully cleaning • Maintenance of signs and lines on the highway • Dealing with major drainage issues and ditches • Maintaining highway structures • Maintaining and running the Medway Tunnel • Winter Maintenance (information on website under “Gritting”) • Highway issues occurring outside of working hours (Duty Engineer).

9. Capital Projects are responsible for creating new highway or assets on it by:- • The team design and/or project manage, major improvements on the highway. • They undertake work on behalf of Traffic Management, Road Safety and the Transport Team. • The team project managed the works for the new bus station, as well as the construction of the new bridge at Stoke. • Recently the changes to Dock Road/Wood Street were managed by the team.

10. Parking Services are responsible for:- Enforcing parking restrictions across the borough, both on and off street by issue penalty charge notices in line with the Traffic Management Act. Processing those penalty notices to ensure those which are appealed are given due consideration and that payment of notices is received. Maintaining car parks for which they are responsible Maintaining pay and display machines within car parks and on street Issuing permits

11. Highway Adoptions are responsible for:- • Ensuring that newly developed estates, which are going to be adopted as highway and therefore maintained at public expense, are built to the correct standard. • If they are not, then they work with the Developer to ensure this standard is met, prior to adoption. • They monitor new developments where changes to the existing highway are going to occur to ensure the agreed works are undertaken to the correct standard

12. Popular Issues – Winter Maintenance • The temperature is used as an indicator as to whether gritting/salting should be undertaken. • Medway has a list of roads, which are on routes, in a priority order, for routine salting. • The primary routes are salted first and these are those roads which are most important and have the biggest impact on the network, usually main roads. • There are 2nd and 3rd tier routes and priority footways and car parks. The level at which these get treated depends on the level of cold weather and/or snow and sorting out the primary routes 1st. • There are salt bins, across the borough and these are provided for use on the highway only.

13. Popular Issues – Winter Maintenance • The biggest concern for householders, is why their road is not salted. • Unfortunately, there are not enough resources to clear every road and therefore, the council must prioritise and concentrate on those priorities. • By clearing the main network first, this has the biggest impact on the highest number of individual users. • For more information, check our website www.medway.gov.uk

14. Popular Issues – Defects in the footway/carriageway • What is a defect? What an individual may consider a defect, may not be what the council does. • We are concerned with safety and unfortunately, budgets are not extensive enough to worry about aesthetics. • If the integrity of the road or path is sound and does not present a safety hazard to users, then this is acceptable. • We concentrate our responsive work on safety defects which could pose a threat to users of the network. • If you are in doubt, report it and a qualified Highway Inspector will inspect the area and they will decide if any work is required.

15. Popular Issues - Drainage • Medway Council is responsible for surface water only (rain) and has its own drainage system for this purpose. This is usually in the form of a gully situated on the edge of the road against the kerb. • Some gully pots are deeper than others and all have a lead pipe contained within them. Once water comes over the level of the lead pipe, the water goes into the system. Therefore, a gully will always have some water in the bottom (except in prolonged periods of hot weather) and it is this that contains the smell. • In extreme cases of wet weather, people sometimes presume the drainage is not working. This is rarely true, it is that the system cannot cope with that amount of water in one go and it will take longer to get into the system than usual, hence some pooling of water on the surface. • Householders, not the council, have a responsibility to protect their own property from water.

16. Popular Issues – Street Lights • Street lights are provided so that users of the highway (pedestrians and vehicles) can orientate themselves on the network. • They are not there to provide safety for vehicles or property and should not be relied up to do so. • Most common problem is a light burning during the day. Lights have sensors on which switches the light on when it gets dark and off, when it is light again. Mainly this is a simple problem to fix. • As with all electrical items, sometimes it could be a multitude of reasons why the light is not working and we have to use our expertise and experience to get to the bottom of it. • At least 99% of our street lights are working at any one time.

17. Issues not covered by Highways Any road not designated highway is not the responsibility of the Highways Department. Some areas are owned by the private householders, a Managing Agent, the local housing association (possibly Medway Council Housing Department) or may still be under the control of the developer and it would be their responsibility to maintain and repair any area. In exceptional cases, we may maintain the odd street light. Other people working on the highway. If a public utility, or other individual, is working on the highway, this is managed by Medway Council’s Traffic Management Team. This includes Southern Water, the Gas or Electric company or their contractor, media companies etc

18. Issues not covered by Highways • Any plant on the highway owned by public utilities – e.g. covers in the footway or carriageway owned by the utility companies. They are responsible for the maintenance of these. • Sewers – Medway Council is responsible for its own drainage system which deals with surface water (rain) only. Sewers are the responsibility of Southern Water. • Requests for yellow lines or controlled parking zones are dealt with by Traffic Management. • Obstructions (with the exception of overhanging vegetation) are dealt with by the Community Team. • These are just a few examples, but as all reports go through our Customer Contact team, the system directs them to the correct person for action, so you don’t have to worry.

19. The End • Questions?