Agenda item

17.1     The Committee considered the future work programme.

17.2     The Committee discussed the progress of the Countryside Access Strategy and requested that the Senior Democratic Services Officer establish a date for the Committee to look at the outcome of the public consultation on the draft strategy. This is likely to be sometime in October or November.

17.3     The Committee discussed the potential future scrutiny work topics. The Committee agreed that it would like to have a briefing paper on the A27 road improvements at the November Scrutiny Committee meeting. With regard to the Climate Change Adaptation work, the Committee agreed to keep this on the work programme with a view to look at this after the County Council elections in May 2017.

Highways Contract

17.4     The Committee noted that it is due to have an update report in March 2017 on the implementation of the new Highways Maintenance contract. However, members of the Committee have experienced difficulties with, or have received complaints about, communication with Highway Stewards and the contact centre. What the Committee is detecting is that there are issues with poor communication from Highways Stewards. The complaints are not about the quality of work but more concerned with a lack of feedback and updates on issues from Stewards to Members.

17.5     The Highway Stewards were previously very responsive before the start of the new contract in May, but the dialogue with them has deteriorated and the feedback from residents is similar. There appears to be a problem in getting feedback from Stewards and from reports made via the website.

17.6     The Assistant Director, Operations responded that he is grateful that the Committee has raised this issue with him, but is disappointed to hear things are not as they should be. The Contractor has retained the 12 Highway Stewards, and there are plans to increase the number to 18 to make the areas they cover smaller. These changes have been deferred until the boundary review is completed, so that the Stewards’ areas can be aligned with the Council division and ward boundaries. Hopefully everyone knows who their Steward is and the six strong Highway Liaison team. There has been a shift in work so the Highway Liaison team are more responsible for updating Councillors and residents in response to emails and calls. The Highway Stewards are focussing more on highway inspections.

17.7     The Assistant Director, Operations suggested that Councillors use the Members’ hotline if things have gone wrong, which is 0345 0712 715. Councillors are also encouraged to use the Members’ area on the East Sussex Highways web site. The Highways team have offered training for the web site to all Councillors and will do this at Ringmer or at County Hall. Residents are also being encouraged to make use more of the website to find information about their requests, problems and work being carried out in their area.

17.8     The Assistant Director, Operations explained that the contact centre do manage call lengths and anticipate peaks in call volumes related to weather and other events. They do use an evidence based approach to call wait time, but this may not be the same as commercial organisations. The contact centre can record call waiting times and sometimes people are not accurate about how long they have been waiting for an answer to their call.

17.9     The Committee commented that the issue may be more about responses to emails and the lack of an acknowledgement of reports and other communication. As the preferred method of communication by Members is via email, the Committee asked if the contact centre is responding to emails as quickly as they should be. The Committee added that email communication is better as there is a record of the request and it is possible to include the residents in the communications. Some of the Committee commented that they were happy to ring the hotline as you keep the human element in communication.

17.10   The Assistant Director, Operations explained that the department will keep all means of communication open as different people have different preferences. However, if there are problems, then Councillors can always contact him directly.

17.11   The Committee emphasised that good and effective communications were a fundamental part of contract review and they are an important part of the new contract.

17.12   The Assistant Director, Operations undertook to address the issue with the contractor on behalf of the Committee and feedback to the Chair.

17.13   The Committee RESOLVED to make the changes to the work programme as outlined in minute 15.22, minute 16.18, minute 17.2 and 17.3 above.