Post Project Review
|
Project Title |
Volunteer Weed Maintenance |
|
Author |
Fenella Lillywhite |
|
Date |
16/10/2023 |
|
Version |
0.1 |
Purpose of This Document
To collate and review the information and feedback from the trial of the volunteer weed maintenance undertaken through the weed maintenance season of 2023.
To understand the successes and issues faced by volunteers undertaking weed maintenance on select roads.
To present the outcome and conclusions made from this trial.
Trial Overview
The volunteer weed maintenance gave streets the option to ‘opt out’ of glyphosate weed spraying. This was done with the expectation that a minimum of 60% of residents of that street agree to be part of the trial and that volunteers would in place undertake some form of weed maintenance.
As a requirement to come under East Sussex County Council insurance an agreement and guidance were included outlining safety and expectations. Training and PPE were provided as well as notification documents to be completed by the volunteers to let ESCC know when they are going to carry out the works and when they have been completed.
This was only an option on cul-de-sacs or residential roads with low-speed limits. See Appendix A for list of roads who completed all documentation to become a volunteer street or opted to continue from 2022.
Benefits Noted
- Brings communities together and creates more community cohesion.
- No Glyphosate used.
- Appeases residents against use of glyphosate.
- Gives residents opportunity to influence what happens to their road.
- Volunteers self-scheduling, rather than relying on ESCC to schedule.
Issues Noted
- Insurance requirements /volunteer resistance to completing the documentation.
- Variation in completing notification documentation, some roads completed no documentation all year and others submitted documents which had only been partially completed.
- Variation of quality of works (See Appendix B for supervisor feedback and C for images).
- Large amounts of admin and supervision by ESCC officers and associated costs.
- Restrictions on where volunteers can weed e.g. not in road / has to have a pavement, meaning some areas left un-weeded.
- Public perception of volunteers weeding e.g. Highways are not undertaking works they are responsible for.
- Weeds may not have been fully removed e.g. roots may still be intact meaning they come back worse or weeds are allowed to seed and spread.
- Disposal of weeds and soil costly for both ESCC and/or volunteers.
Insurance
This trial continuing on from 2022 was the first time ESCC Highways had insured volunteers under ESCC insurance.
The standard highways volunteering process requests volunteer groups and/or Parish and Town Councils to obtain their own £10million Public Liability Insurance instead, this means there is less documentation and no notification needed to ESCC as to when works will be undertaken.
Documentation
Therefore, to undertake this trial and insure volunteers under ESCC insurance, volunteers had to meet the requirements of East Sussex County Council insurance provider, including documentation for certain aspects of the process.
An agreement had to be signed by all volunteers which outlined expectations, what can and cannot be done and provided a standard risk assessment. Training was carried out via a PowerPoint presentation, narrated by an ESCC Officer.
Initially the ESCC insurance provider requested an ESCC officer to be onsite at all times whilst the volunteers undertook work. However, there was not enough officer resource to meet this expectation and it was agreed that completing a notification and completion document would meet that requirement, however ESCC officers would need to undertake ad-hoc inspections.
For 2023 the documentation was reviewed and although the same information was still requested, it was edited to be simpler.
The documentation has received criticism throughout the trial and there has been a reluctance to complete it.
It was found this year that some roads never completed any notification documentation, therefore suggesting either no weed maintenance has been undertaken on that road or it has been undertaken without insurance requirements. Others submitted documentation which was only partially completed, late or provided non-specific dates.
A small proportion of the volunteer streets provided all documentation on time and correctly.
See Appendix D for template documents volunteers must complete.
Weeding Restrictions
Although the roads were low-speed, low-traffic roads, volunteers were not allowed to work within the carriageway or anywhere there was not a footpath. This has therefore created an imbalance of weeds in some places such as the channels.
Officer Time
Resource for the trial was utilised from the ESCC Highways Contracts Management Group.
It was found that the initial set up of reviewing applications, responding, and sending the relevant documentation at the beginning of the year was the most time consuming. Followed by correspondence with volunteers over documentation and surveying of the streets by supervisors.
The trial included 12 roads, if more roads were to take up this approach it could quite quickly become resource intensive.
Feedback from Volunteers
Generally, the feedback received from volunteers has been positive, specifically around bringing communities together and not having glyphosate used on their road.
A supervisor spoke to a resident who advised that residents should be weeding outside their own property but some are some not. Another resident in a different street asked if a section could be strimmed due to it being two foot high.
It has been found that if a road has a strong lead volunteer to coordinate works or County Councillor involvement, they are more likely to have been successful with the trial.
The following are the main issues which have been raised:
|
Issues |
ESCC Response |
|
Complicated documented process |
The process is in place to meet ESCC insurance requirements.
Alternatively, the standard Highways Volunteering process is available, whereby volunteers provide alternative insurance cover, and as such requires less documentation. |
|
Issues disposing of weeds. |
Requests for bags to dispose of weeds, where residents did not have a green wastebin. Some groups were provided with green waste bins paid for by ESCC. Going forward if this was required on a large scale, a discussion could be held with relevant District and Brough Councils to see how this can be managed or contributed to. |
Customer Cases
|
Year |
Number of cases to do with weeds in trial areas. |
|
2023 |
7 |
|
2022 |
9 |
|
2021 |
4 |
|
2020 |
6 |
|
2019 |
8 |
There has been no noted increase in customer cases due to the trial.
General Feedback
Although standard case numbers have remained similar to pre-trial levels, the public have voiced their opposition through other routes, such as directly to Members, on Highways Facebook posts, the complaint process and submission of Information Requests.
The general consensus is that roads with high resident interest and a strong lead volunteer have successfully organised themselves. Concern has been raised around the reduction in interest from other roads, manifested in the lack of maintenance on those streets.
It should be noted that there is a mix of public opinion in terms of how weeds should be maintained, and concerns are more frequently being raised for reasons such as accessibility, safety and aesthetics rather than the technique used.
Contract and Commercial Supervisor Visits
The Contract and Commercial Supervisors responsible for inspecting the trial locations have noted that generally the locations which have been undertaking the trial for 2 years have larger weeds. However, they have also found deterioration in some of the other trial locations.
Areas with paved footways are more prevalent to weeds, making it harder to maintain. Although some groups have managed to keep areas clear or at least ensure that the pavement has adequate width.
Where volunteers are not able to weed in the road the channels can be seen to have increased weed growth in comparison to the footway.
One of the main issues highlighted is large weeds abutting private property and the highway decreasing the width of the pavement.
See Appendix B for supervisor feedback and C for images.
Other Costs
PPE
For 2023 30 sets of PPE were purchased over the course of the trial for volunteers. The sets included gloves, goggles and hi-vis jackets. The total cost was £150.56.
The total amount of PPE sets across both years purchased was 91 at a total cost of £406.
Only one group returned PPE from the previous year.
Green Waste Bins
After consultation with Lewes District Council, ESCC paid for 3 volunteer roads to receive green waste bins for a year at a cost of £35 each, totalling £105.
Outcome & Conclusion
There has been mixed results in terms of the quality of maintenance on volunteer roads as shown in the photos and feedback from the supervisors.
The insurance paperwork for volunteer groups remains the main issue with volunteer weed maintenance. With some roads not completing any paperwork for the year and others not completing the documentation fully. The information requested cannot be reduced due to the requirement from the Insurance Providers for ESCC insurance.
It is therefore suggested that should the volunteering option go forward the ESCC Insured Volunteering and the Standard Highways Volunteering are run alongside each other. See Appendix E for details.
This would be with a very clear understanding that to come under ESCC insurance the documentation must be completed. If it is found that what is being provided does not satisfy the requirements of ESCC then as a last resort the road would be returned to the standard weed maintenance schedule.
Or alternatively the group can look to come under an external insurance through the standard highways volunteering process whereby an agreement and insurance must be provided by volunteers, but no further documentation is needed. This would also allow a group to work across multiple streets. ESCC would just need to be informed of what streets to remove from the weed maintenance programme.
Safety remains the top priority for ESCC and any reports of accessibility or safety issues from volunteer streets would necessitate ESCC taking back the maintenance.
Appendix A – Volunteer Road Locations
· Leicester Road – Lewes
· Lower South Road – Hastings
· New Road – Lewes
· South Street – Lewes
· South Way – Lewes
· St Thomas – Hastings
· Tackleway – Hastings
· Talbot Terrace – Lewes (with Pelham Terrace, Toronto Terrace)
· Alma Terrace Hastings
· Oban Road Hastings
· Clinton Crescent Hastings
· Markwick Terrace Hastings
