Highway maintenance plan

1.1 The Hartlepool approach

Hartlepool’s highway network covers over 400 Km of roads. The Council is responsible for providing services to over 90,000 people including management of the highway network.

The Council seeks to provide a high-quality service with the aim to work with and support the people of Hartlepool to fulfil our mission to be a responsive and caring Council providing good quality and efficient services'.

The successful management of the highway network is fundamental to the ability of the Council to deliver this vision. The highway network is fundamental to the economic, social and environmental wellbeing of the community. Consequently, the use of appropriate management systems is essential in achieving this.

1.2 Code of practice for Highway Maintenance Management

The most recent Code of Practice for Highway Maintenance Management entitled "Well maintained Highways", published in October 2016 by the Roads Liaison Group is founded on the key principles of Best Value, that services should be based upon the needs of users and the community rather than the convenience of service providers. It has also been designed to facilitate the conduct of Best Value Reviews including highway maintenance, and to provide a stimulus to the pursuit of improvement.

The importance of highway maintenance and its relevance to the integrated transport agenda is widely recognised and it is important that the service is closely integrated, not only with overall transport policy, but also with other key areas of policy.

Maintenance policy and practice should be sufficiently flexible to respond and add value to a wide range of local circumstances, whilst retaining the level of consistency expected by users, particularly for those parts of the network serving more than a local function.

The object of the Code is to encourage co-ordination and consistency in the delivery of local highway maintenance services and to facilitate sharing of developing best practice. The Code comprises a framework of guidance and standards that, if generally applied, should contribute significantly to the achievement of this objective.

The duty of Best Value means regular review, comparing performance and challenging present arrangements in order to secure continuous improvement or "step change" in pursuing defined outcomes and this requires a robust regime of performance indicators, benchmarks and targets. The broadly based performance improvement agenda of Comprehensive Performance Assessment has evolved from Best Value with due consideration within this plan.

A key area of the Best Value regime is that of procurement, with the expectation that reviews should specifically consider the potential for competition in service delivery. Consideration should be given to "Rethinking Construction" arising out of the Egan Report with the emphasis on new forms of partnering arrangements including public-private partnerships and the use of framework agreements.

The Government's Efficiency Review undertaken by Sir Peter Gershon during 2004 has promoted increased stimulus for review in the delivery of services.

The strong focus on the needs of users rather than providers brings a requirement for greater emphasis on consulting and involving users, and will need careful local consideration of how to undertake this most effectively for such a wide ranging and complex service.

Finally, the importance should be stressed of the need for highway maintenance to meet the challenge of sustainability. This requires that the wider economic, social and environmental implications of both the service and its individual schemes are first of all understood, and then modified as far as practicable to ensure Best Value outcomes for the community.

The Council fully endorses the principles of the Code of Practice and will seek to ensure that all highway maintenance activities in Hartlepool are undertaken in accordance with the requirements of the Code.

1.3 Purpose and scope

The objectives of the new Code of Practice and accordingly, therefore, the objectives of this Highway Maintenance Plan are:

• to encourage the adoption of asset management planning as a means of demonstrating value for money in the delivery of highway maintenance.
• to encourage the development, adoption and regular review of policies for highway maintenance, consistent with the wider principles of integrated transport, sustainability and Best Value
• to encourage a focus on the needs of users and the community, and their active involvement in the development and review of policies, priorities and programmes
• to encourage harmonisation of highway maintenance practice and standards where this is consistent with users expectations, whilst retaining reasonable diversity consistent with local choice
• to encourage the adoption of an efficient and consistent approach in the collection, processing and recording of highway inventory, highway condition and status information for the purpose of both local and national needs assessment, management and performance monitoring
• to encourage the adoption and regular review of a risk management regime in the determination of local technical and operational standards, rectification of defects arising from safety and serviceability inspections, and investment priorities.
• to encourage innovation in the procurement of highway maintenance contracts, whilst complying with the high standards of corporate governance.
• to seek continuous improvement in environmental performance and operate in such a way as to safeguard personal safety, public safety and to minimize the potential harmful effects of treatments on the environment.

Although the main purpose of highway maintenance is to maintain the highway network for the safe and convenient movement of people and goods, this needs to be set within the wider context of integrated transport, Best Value and the corporate vision of the Council.

The principles that underpin and define the objectives of highway maintenance are:

Network Safety

• Complying with statutory obligations
• Meeting users' needs for safety

Network Serviceability

• Ensuring availability
• Achieving integrity
• Maintaining reliability
• Enhancing condition

Network Sustainability

• Minimising cost over time
• Maximising value to the community
• Maximising environmental contribution.

The scope of the highway maintenance service is very wide ranging and encompasses the following types of activity:

• Reactive — responding to inspections, complaints or emergencies
• Routine — regular consistent schedule for patching, cleaning, landscape maintenance and other activities
• Programmed — planned schemes, primarily of resurfacing, reconditioning or reconstruction
• Regulatory — inspecting and regulating the activities of others
• Winter Service
• Weather and other emergencies

All technical and operational standards contained in this Highway Maintenance Plan are for guidance as investigatory levels only. Decisions for action must be taken in accordance with the risk management strategy of the Council.

1.4 Aims and duties

The Council has a duty as the local highway authority for Hartlepool, excluding the A19 trunk road, to ensure that all adopted roads and footways are maintained in a safe condition having regard to the amount and nature of the traffic using them. It is also the aim to provide a road network with a condition and environment that are acceptable to the people of Hartlepool and the travelling public. In the pursuit of this aim, the Council is committed to ensuring that all funds available for the service are used as effectively as possible.

To undertake this duty and in seeking to achieve these aims, the following strategies have been incorporated:

• to monitor the proportion of the maintenance budget spent on programmed structural maintenance to bring it in line with the national average
• to continue to give a high priority to the Principal Road Network, heavily trafficked routes and areas of high pedestrian usage
• to engage in regular consultations with users to ascertain views, needs and priorities
• to programme and prioritise works, having taken into account the results of user consultations, consistent with the risk management strategy
• to maximise expenditure on works on the highway, whilst ensuring that sufficient and appropriate data is collected to enable informed decisions on priorities for expenditure to be taken
• to continue to develop the use of condition data and other management information in accordance with the development of UKPMS
• to develop a Transport Asset Management Plan (TAMP) as part of the Local Transport Plan process.
• to ensure that highway maintenance activities are undertaken in accordance with the principles of the Code of Practice for Highway Maintenance Management "Well — maintained Highways" as contained in this Maintenance Plan.