Agenda item

7.1

The Committee received a report of the Head of Highway Maintenance providing an update on the Streets Ahead project.  The report was supported by a presentation by Steve Robinson, Head of Highway Maintenance, Sheffield City Council, Graeme Symonds, Network Director, Amey and John Barnett, Commercial Director, Northern Powergrid.

7.2

Also in attendance for this item were Councillor Jack Scott, Cabinet Member for Environment, Recycling and Streetscene and Mike Hammond, Connections Manager, Mick Hickling, Operations Manager, and Siobhan Barton, Stakeholder and Communications Manager, Northern Powergrid.

7.3

Members of the Committee raised questions and the following responses were provided:-

·                Significant progress had been made in terms of cleaning out gullies under the project, with most being cleaned out during the first year. Some gullies could not be cleaned due to cars being parked over them, and approximately 25% of the gullies required some form of repair work.

·                Amey was performing above its performance indicators in dealing with litter and flytipping. There was now a multi-agency approach – Making Sheffield Cleaner – which reviewed where improvements could be made across the City, including in parks and on housing land.

·                The City Council’s Highway Maintenance Service had a duty to respond to appropriate Freedom of Information requests received in connection with Amey’s work.  This duty was included in the Streets Ahead contract, and many such requests had already been received and dealt with.  In connection with this issue, Northern Powergrid also published information in terms of its performance on its website, with the purpose of being open and transparent. 

·                In terms of communicating information on intermittent faults to street lights to those residents affected, Northern Powergrid would prefer to deliver letters to all households affected, providing information on the faults, together with timescales for repairing such faults, rather than having Fault Aware signs stuck on those street lights where there was an ongoing electricity supply fault.  The reason for this was that the Company did not consider that it fostered a partnership approach to improving overall performance, specifically on intermittent fifth core faults. Councillor Jack Scott indicated that he would be happy, from the Council’s point of view, to stop putting up such signs if there was a commitment from Northern Powergrid to deliver such letters. Northern Powergrid was committed to working even closer with Amey to improve the way intermittent faults were dealt with in order to improve customer perceptions when affected by such faults. This would involve the development of an action plan, specifically for fifth core faults.

·                Amey had approximately 1,250 staff working on the project, of which 482 had transferred from the Council under the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations (TUPE).  It was believed that the vast majority of the TUPE staff were still employed by Amey.  A considerable amount of work had been undertaken in terms of changing working practices following the transfer. 

·                It was not the intention of the project to replace all kerbs, and Amey was only replacing those which were damaged beyond repair.

·                A number of quality issues had been identified in connection with the installation of the new street lights and in response, two teams of staff had been tasked to deal with the problems to date.

·                No new LED light had failed to date, as far as anyone was aware, although there had been a number of issues with regard to intermittent faults with the electricity supply to street lights. In approximately five years’ time, when all the LED street lights were installed, and linked to a central control system, Amey would be aware of light failures automatically and therefore, would not rely on being informed by members of the public. 

·                Amey apologised for the problems being experienced with regard to the installation of the new street light columns, and subsequent connection, as well as the inconvenience caused by the barriers having to be erected to cover excavation holes.  There had been a number of issues due to unexpected problems but, after a year since the project commenced, Amey were now familiar with a number of such issues, and were able to resolve such issues much quicker.

·                It was accepted that there had been longer than expected delays in terms of filling in excavation holes dug for the installation of the new street light columns, which had resulted in the barriers erected to protect such holes being there for long periods of time.  There had been a number of problems regarding such barriers, including them being blown down in high winds, young people using them as play equipment and even people stealing and/or selling them, which had resulted in considerable resources being allocated in terms of policing this.

·                Amey and Northern Powergrid were working very closely to reduce the time period between when the old streetlights were disconnected and the new lights being connected and switched on, as this was one of the main issues that was causing inconvenience and frustration for residents.

·                Some of the problems in terms of faults to the street lights had been as a result of the use of the fifth core network as on such types of cable network, smaller fuses were required (30 amp), which did not take much to blow. Although this type of network was intrinsically reliable, when a fault occurred, all street lights were affected. The cause of faults on a fifth core network fell broadly into three categories – problems with the cable, problems in the bottom of the light column and problems in the top of the light column, due to water ingress in the element. When Northern Powergrid’s equipment could locate precisely where the fault was, there was often no technical reason identifiable for why such faults occurred. Where street lights were connected to the mains cable network, the faults were be easier to repair and less of the lights would go off when the fault occurred. 

·                In terms of an end to end audit in respect of Northern Powergrid’s performance, the company was regulated by OFGEM, with all its processes being subject to an annual audit and strict governance arrangements.  All the company’s performance statistics were scrutinised and signed off at quarterly governance meetings. 

·                Approximately 2.9 million square metres of grass verges were maintained as part of the project.  Some verges were damaged by inconsiderate parking and persistent overrunning, and there were a small number of options for permanent solutions to that, such as protection, hardening or enforcement.

·                As part of the project, all street lighting columns, including the concrete columns, would be structurally assessed.  Some concrete columns had deteriorated due to corrosion of reinforcement, and Amey suggested that any concerns regarding specific concrete columns should be referred to them. 

·                In terms of members of the public reporting complaints or issues in connection with the project, the vast majority of people had called the City Council’s Call Centre on 0114 273 4567, and they had received a response in terms of what action would, or had, been taken. 

·                The Council had not imposed any penalties on the utility companies in terms of them excavating into new road surfaces, as part of their planned works, after zone works had been completed under the project.  This was because the new road surfaces were subject to protection under the Highways Act. In terms of the companies’ emergency works, every effort was made, where possible, to stop this happening, but everyone appreciated that it was the right thing to repair leaks in pipes. The Council and Amey held monthly meetings with the utility companies to discuss whether they had any such works programmed.

·                Some mobile phone applications could be used to report highway issues to the Council, which included Love Clean Streets and Fix My Street.

·                It was envisaged that the high performance levels would continue under the contract following the initial five-year investment phase.  As and when the contract moved to the maintenance phase, there were likely to be a number of personnel changes, with more managers and staff having maintenance experience being employed by Amey. 

7.4

RESOLVED: That the Committee:-

(a)       notes the contents of the report now submitted, the information reported as part of the presentation and the responses to the questions raised;

(b)       requests Steve Robinson, Head of Highway Maintenance, Sheffield City Council, working with colleagues in Amey and Northern Powergrid, to draft a report, together with an Action Plan, on the following issues raised, for submission to a future meeting:-

(i)            The repair process for intermittent faults as an end to end process;

(ii)          The communication of intermittent faults to the public;

(iii)         Making the installation of the new street lights a slicker process;

(iv)         Communication of updates to customer and Member-reported faults; and

(c)        thanks those representatives from Amey and Northern Powergrid for attending the meeting and reporting on the progress of the project and responding to the questions raised.