Potholes and Pavements

[Oldhippy]

Just finishing the book by Laura Laker 'Potholes and Pavements',along with 'Bike Nation' by Peter Walker it is one of those great reads that point out the obvious flaws in political will and the huge disparity in how different councils operate what is a relatively simple plan with massive benefits to the population as a whole. Amazed that si many small groups never seem to work in unison as well. Inspiring at many levels and frustrating at others. What would the CC Collective do if they had some control over the situation?

 

[Drago]

Bike Nation is good read, genuinely thought provoking.

I'd bin off the contractors and bring the service back in house. They claim there's no money in the budget to make effective repairs, yet there's money to pay dividends to Kier shareholders.

Active travel is a priority for our local carncil, with significant targets for percentage of journeys walked or cycled by 2030. Yet, when I report a cycle route/shared path totally blocked by overgrown foliage the local Highway Authority, ie, Kier, put it on the schedule for a repair within the next 26 weeks.

So the council's priority is active travel, yet their contractors priority js maximising shareholder return. The conflict is obvious.

That's about as far as I'll go on that as it becomes arguably political, but that conflict of interest is something I'd address, and as a parish councillor I do my very best to be a thorn in their side over this.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

Bike Nation is good read, genuinely thought provoking.

I'd bin off the contractors and bring the service back in house. They claim there's no money in the budget to make effective repairs, yet there's money to pay dividends to Kier shareholders.

Active travel is a priority for our local carncil, with significant targets for percentage of journeys walked or cycled by 2030. Yet, when I report a cycle route/shared path totally blocked by overgrown foliage the local Highway Authority, ie, Kier, put it on the schedule for a repair within the next 26 weeks.

So the council's priority is active travel, yet their contractors priority js maximising shareholder return. The conflict is obvious.

That's about as far as I'll go on that as it becomes arguably political, but that conflict of interest is something I'd address, and as a parish councillor I do my very best to be a thorn in their side over this.

Clearly depends on the area

There is one of the those "traffic calming" things at a village near us - reduces the traffic to one way only for a few yards
but there is a cut through for bike so they are not affected

but it tends to get overgrown when the bushes at the side grow
so I reported it one year

a few days later I got an email saying it would be fixed ina few days
plus some details of a cycling advisory group the bloke was trying to start up

it was fixed next time I went that way
never heard any more about the group - but someone was at least trying

fly tipping at the like also seems to get cleared up quickly

other things - such as Social Services - seem to work less well

 

[mjr]

Active travel is a priority for our local carncil, with significant targets for percentage of journeys walked or cycled by 2030. Yet, when I report a cycle route/shared path totally blocked by overgrown foliage the local Highway Authority, ie, Kier, put it on the schedule for a repair within the next 26 weeks.

Kier probably do that because that's what the carncil has contracted them to do. The carncil "transport asset" repair policy will be set in a document somewhere that doesn't reflect active travel being a priority. Here it is: https://www.westnorthants.gov.uk/highways-policies/highways-plans-and-strategies - they've just rolled the policy of the effectively-bankrupt county council onwards for now, possibly until the end of Kier's contract.

As you can see from page 21 onwards, their inspection frequencies are the minimum allowed by the Institute of Highway Management Code of Practice and the repair response times are not stated, but Appendix 7 implies that they'll be the minimum, although cycleways are not explicitly listed. If anyone told you that active travel is a priority for that council, I'm surprised they managed to keep a straight face because it obviously isn't yet!

Binning off the contractors and taking it back in house will make naff-all difference if that repair policy isn't changed. Changing that repair policy without binning off the contractors will probably allow Kier to extract an extra fee to modify the contract, though.

That's about as far as I'll go on that as it becomes arguably political, but that conflict of interest is something I'd address, and as a parish councillor I do my very best to be a thorn in their side over this.

Politics is allowed when it's about cycling. Ideally, we'll leave party politics out of it as much as possible, but sometimes that's unavoidable.

 

[Binky]

Local council where I live and ride is good in fairness at repairing roads and potholes, certainly better than some areas.
Only issue I find is these days they use rolled chippings as a top cover not the smooth tarmac which is a right pain and potential danger for a few weeks as get piles of chippings on bends and junctions which need to be watchful for. Worst ones are bends at bottom of a reasonably fast descent, had a few twitchy moments then.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

Quality of repair is important

round here they seem to do a good job on the main roads

but some of the side roads are rubbish
there was a pothole on a T-junction on our estate and they "fixed" it twice and the edges just fell apart withina year both time
eventually they dig it all out and did it again
but this time the edges could easily be seen to be better done

that was 5 years ago and it is still fine
would have saved a lot to just do it right first time

 

[Drago]

Kier probably do that because that's what the carncil has contracted them to do. The carncil "transport asset" repair policy will be set in a document somewhere that doesn't reflect active travel being a priority. Here it is: https://www.westnorthants.gov.uk/highways-policies/highways-plans-and-strategies - they've just rolled the policy of the effectively-bankrupt county council onwards for now, possibly until the end of Kier's contract.

As you can see from page 21 onwards, their inspection frequencies are the minimum allowed by the Institute of Highway Management Code of Practice and the repair response times are not stated, but Appendix 7 implies that they'll be the minimum, although cycleways are not explicitly listed. If anyone told you that active travel is a priority for that council, I'm surprised they managed to keep a straight face because it obviously isn't yet!

Binning off the contractors and taking it back in house will make naff-all difference if that repair policy isn't changed. Changing that repair policy without binning off the contractors will probably allow Kier to extract an extra fee to modify the contract, though.


Politics is allowed when it's about cycling. Ideally, we'll leave party politics out of it as much as possible, but sometimes that's unavoidable.

It's chicken and egg. The policy reflects the contract because that's all Kier have been delivering. It's easier to change the wording to suit the circumstances than it is to hold Kier to account.

Seeing as it's proven possible to lower the standards in the policy to reflect the reality of service delivery, it is equally possible to revert. It's not a one time done set in stone for all time suicide pact proclamation.

 

[mjr]

It's chicken and egg. The policy reflects the contract because that's all Kier have been delivering. It's easier to change the wording to suit the circumstances than it is to hold Kier to account.

Of course, not having watched Northants CoCo back in 2015, I can't say for sure that's not what happened, but it seems unlikely because it would leave the council open to legal challenge from any contractor who bid to meet the policy as it was when put out to tender. I suspect the new council either simply haven't realised that the policy is undermining active travel, or haven't cared enough about active travel to actually change anything.

Seeing as it's proven possible to lower the standards in the policy to reflect the reality of service delivery, it is equally possible to revert. It's not a one time done set in stone for all time suicide pact proclamation.

Oh, for sure. They can make active travel a priority any time they choose, for a price.

But until they do, active travel is obviously not really a priority for that council, and they shouldn't be allowed to say otherwise. If they dare publish a self-promotional magazine or advert saying it is, I hope someone asks the ASA to challenge them to substantiate the claim, on the grounds that their management policy gives it no priority and I bet the council budget doesn't either. I'd be surprised if they've even yet rejected any development plans for failing to follow the active travel paragraphs in the National Planning Policy Framework.

 

[All uphill]

To deliver high quality (cycling) services requires spending by councils, which requires money.

I've just been to the Netherlands. my son there showed me his tax bill and I got a glimpse of services. Both were high, and that's not a coincidence,IMHO.

 

[Oldhippy]

Whilst the taxes are perhaps higher in Europe at least you can see the end result in the quality of infrastructure.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

Many years ago I was an IT Teacher and the IT technician was a Governor of the Welsh medium school down the road
The main corridor needed painting and the Head informed the Governors that he was going to go out and get quotes

One of the other governors was a proper painter and decorator - owned a proper company, had employees and all that so he asked if he could quote
apparently not - not registered as a contractor with the counsel
so it was all delayed so he could register

apparently registering was a right pain
had to prove he complied with all sorts of policies such as equal oportunities
he did - but proving it all seemed far more work than it should have been

but he was annoyed and got through it

so then he could quote for it

he did it properly - didn;t do any "mates rates" or anything - just quoted as it is was a normal business
clearly he was not allowed to know the other quotes or be part of the selecting process
but my friend (the IT Tech at our school was
apparently his quote was half the other quotes

because - presumably - there were only 3 P&D companies reistered so they all quoted based on whose turn it was to do a job - probably organised in a pub in Denbigh

he did the job - did it properly and checked it himself

but never quoted for a school again - as even the quote process was too much trouble to be worth it


and we wonder why counsels spend too much money!

 

[All uphill]

Many years ago I was an IT Teacher and the IT technician was a Governor of the Welsh medium school down the road
The main corridor needed painting and the Head informed the Governors that he was going to go out and get quotes

One of the other governors was a proper painter and decorator - owned a proper company, had employees and all that so he asked if he could quote
apparently not - not registered as a contractor with the counsel
so it was all delayed so he could register

apparently registering was a right pain
had to prove he complied with all sorts of policies such as equal oportunities
he did - but proving it all seemed far more work than it should have been

but he was annoyed and got through it

so then he could quote for it

he did it properly - didn;t do any "mates rates" or anything - just quoted as it is was a normal business
clearly he was not allowed to know the other quotes or be part of the selecting process
but my friend (the IT Tech at our school was
apparently his quote was half the other quotes

because - presumably - there were only 3 P&D companies reistered so they all quoted based on whose turn it was to do a job - probably organised in a pub in Denbigh

he did the job - did it properly and checked it himself

but never quoted for a school again - as even the quote process was too much trouble to be worth it


and we wonder why counsels spend too much money!

So what's your solution?

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

So what's your solution?

Ahh yes

well that's always the problem

You clearly need to make it easier to for a proper company to apply and be accepted to be able to quote

but that raises the question about who defines a proper company and how you prove you are one

and to make it easier - how do you make sure you don;t have a company that only employs people of one race and gender and then only if the support [enter political party name here]

or whatever
and so you create a new form to be filled in to show that.....


so - yes - something MUST BE DONE

no idea how