Roads Best Value Review
Findings
Challenge
Strengths
- Strong leadership at Director level.
- Supportive leadership at Manager level.
- Good but informal working relationships between Roads/Contract staff.
- Strong commitment to working together.
- Employees are professional and technically experienced.
- Strong procedures for CDM regulations.
- Clear knowledge of responsibilities in relation to the adopted roads & footways.
Weaknesses
- Since re-organisation (1996) Heads of Service have struggled to fully integrate Roads Services with other key services.
- Schedule of rates contract needs modernising.
- Strategic management and planning arrangements weak; strategies and plans out of date.
- Operational policies, manuals and technical library out of date.
- Performance & Quality Management arrangements weak.
- Lack of environmental management systems.
- Staff resources inadequate on both Roads and Contracts sides; also succession planning required to ensure service continuity.
- Internal communications need to be improved at all levels.
- Lack of common objectives and values.
- Division of responsibilities unclear in relation to un-adopted surfaces.
- Lack of up to date inventory information.
- Utility operations need to be better regulated and co-ordinated.
- Potentially dominant role of R&T is not adequately recognised.
- Staff morale low.
Consult
Strengths
- Relatively high customer satisfaction with condition of street lighting, road signs and markings, crossings, disabled parking, winter maintenance.
- Low level of official complaints.
Weaknesses
- No ongoing mechanisms for gauging public satisfaction.
- Relatively low customer satisfaction with speed of repair and footway winter maintenance.
Compete
Strengths
- Roads Contracts competitiveness as demonstrated by winning tendered work (Council and external).
- Attracted high levels of external funding.
Weaknesses
- Contract needs to be modernised to ensure transparency in charging and pricing agreements.
- Unable to take account of all potential funding and income opportunities.
- Financial and business planning requires to be improved.
- Funding arrangements for replacement of street lighting columns required.
- Cost of street lighting high.
Compare
Strengths
- Service priorities and standards are consistent with best practice, e.g. for winter maintenance including gritting and snow clearing.
- Performance against statutory PIs above the Scottish average in terms of investment/maintenance (except for footways).
Weaknesses
- Lack of formal benchmarking arrangements; better use could be made of APSE.
- Speed of street lighting repair in bottom quartile nationally.
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See also
Contact information
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