Bedford Borough Council Winter Service Policy & Operational Plan 2020– 2021 G:\Highways & Transport\Highways BBC\Highways Hub\Highway Policies\winter maintenance 1 Contents 1. Document Circulation List ..........................................................................3 2. Introduction ..................................................................................................4 3. Key Issues ....................................................................................................5 4. Decision Making and Control Procedures ................................................. 8 5. Service Provision ....................................................................................... 13 6. Performance Monitoring and Record Keeping ........................................ 20 7. Route Hierarchy ......................................................................................... 21 8. Weather Forecasts and Ice Detection Systems ....................................... 24 9. Communications ........................................................................................26 10. Salt Stocks ................................................................................................. 28 11. Salt Bins .....................................................................................................28 12. Advice on snow clearance ........................................................................ 31 13. Snow Fences ..............................................................................................32 14. Responsibilities of Water Utilities for leaks onto the Highway .............. 33 15. Vehicles and Plant ..................................................................................... 34 16. Staff Rotas and Working time. .................................................................. 35 17. Review of Winter Maintenance Policy & Operational Plan for 2019/20 .. 37 Appendix A – Major Responsibilities of BBC ................................................................. 38 Appendix B – Notification of Decisions .......................................................................... 39 Appendix C – Composite Temperatures and Actions Record Sheet ............................ 40 Appendix D – Decision Record Sheet ............................................................................. 41 Appendix E – Contact Details ..........................................................................................42 Appendix F – Residual Salt Check Form ........................................................................ 43 Appendix G – Requests for additions to Priority 1 Salting Network ............................. 44 Appendix H – Requests for salting off of Priority 1 Network......................................... 46 Appendix J – Supervisors Check List ............................................................................. 47 Appendix K – Plans of Priority 0, 1, 2 and Footway Salting Networks ......................... 48 Appendix L – Reciprocal arrangements with other Councils ........................................ 52 Appendix M – Weather Forecasting Consultancy .......................................................... 54 Appendix N – Icelert Ice Warning System....................................................................... 55 Appendix P – Salt Bin Locations ..................................................................................... 56 Appendix Q – Winter Maintenance Plant Inventory ....................................................... 58 Appendix R – Winter Maintenance Contracted Plant ..................................................... 59 Appendix S – APSE Data sheet ....................................................................................... 60 Appendix T – Driver briefing sheet ................................................................................. 61 G:\Highways & Transport\Highways BBC\Highways Hub\Highway Policies\winter maintenance 2 1. Document Circulation List 1.1. The following organisations will receive an emailed .pdf version of this Plan o Central Bedfordshire Council o Bedfordshire Police o Luton Borough Council o Cambridgeshire County Council o Milton Keynes Council o Northamptonshire County Council o Ringway Jacobs Area 6&8 (Highways England) G:\Highways & Transport\Highways BBC\Highways Hub\Highway Policies\winter maintenance 3 2. Introduction 2.1. Background Within Bedford Borough Council the service is delivered through our Highways Department The Winter Service deals with regular, frequent and reasonably predictable occurrences like low temperatures, ice and snow, as well as exceptional weather events. Although a specialised area, the Winter Service is a significant aspect of network management both financially and in terms of its perceived importance to road users. It can also have significant environmental effects. 2.2. Objectives The Winter Service can contribute significantly to each of the core objectives set out in the Code of Practice – Well managed highway infrastructure as described below: Customer There is in Bedford Borough, very considerable user needs and expectations and these can be a major influence on customer satisfaction through demonstrating an efficient, effective and proportionate response to winter conditions Safety Safety is a consideration for the Winter Service, even though statutory obligations and users’ needs vary. Serviceability Maintaining availability and reliability of the highway network is a key objective of the Winter Service and one where user judgements of performance will be immediate rather than longer term Sustainability Low temperatures and the formation of ice can cause serious damage to the fabric of running surfaces and accelerated damage to the network. An effective Winter Service can contribute to a reduction in whole life costs. G:\Highways & Transport\Highways BBC\Highways Hub\Highway Policies\winter maintenance 4 3. Key Issues 3.1. Legal Bedford Borough Councils duty to maintain the highway is set out by Section 41 of the Highways Act 1980 as amended by S111 of the Railways and Transport Safety Act 2003 (which came into force on 1 November 2003). This duty is not an absolute duty. This amendment inserted after section 41(1) of the Highways Act 1980 (c. 66) (duty of highway authority to maintain highway) the following requirement: “(1A) In particular, a highway authority is under a duty to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that safe passage along a highway is not endangered by snow and ice”. The Traffic Management Act 2004 placed a network management duty on all local traffic authorities in England. It requires authorities to do all that is reasonably practicable to manage the network effectively to keep traffic moving. Through the adoption of this Winter Maintenance Policy and Operational Plan the Council is able to demonstrate that they are meeting their current legal obligations, and are doing so in a way which ensures that their resources are being deployed in the most economic, efficient, effective and environmentally friendly manner. 3.2 Policy and Guidance Well-managed highway infrastructure (Code of Practice for highway maintenance management) issued in October 2016 recommends that a highway authority should formally approve and adopt policies and priorities for Winter Service, which are coherent with wider objectives for transport, integration, accessibility and network management, including strategies for public transport, walking and cycling. They should also take into account the wider strategic objectives of the authority. It goes on to recommend that Authorities should develop local service levels for Winter Service which define the Overall Winter Period, the Core Winter Period, the level of resilience and treatment networks, prepare a Winter Maintenance Policy Statement, produce a Winter Service Operational Plan and update it annually. 3.3 Resource Bedford Borough Council as the Highway Authority, is responsible for providing all aspects of the winter service including decision making, supervision and monitoring of winter maintenance activity, ownership, operation and maintenance of the winter maintenance fleet. To deliver the service within the available resources, the precautionary salting routes reflect the importance of the various traffic routes and are adaptable to the prevailing weather conditions. Funding for the winter maintenance precautionary salting service based on a ‘normal’ winter period is provided via a ring-fenced revenue budget. The occurrence of severe weather conditions which necessitates additional snow clearance to be undertaken may require consideration to be given to providing additional resources to maintain the service; this is usually through a call on general contingency funds. G:\Highways & Transport\Highways BBC\Highways Hub\Highway Policies\winter maintenance 5 As the winter season moves forwards, salt is replenished through an existing contract with Compass Minerals. The table below shows the Councils revenue budgets for providing the Highways Winter Maintenance service Year Start of Year Final outturn budget 2009/10 £580,000 £688,919 2010/11 £627,190 £799,164 2011/12 £538,320 £505,257 2012/13 £548,040 £551,171 2013/14 £568,100 £488,833 2014/15 £542,540 £505,730 2015/16 £562,290 £496,560 2016/17 £519,180 £418,989 2017/18 £461,400 £568,859 2018/19 £531,400 £456,011 2019/20 £419,930 £385,508 2020/21 £347,810 Bedford Borough - Winter Service Historic Data £900,000 100 £800,000 90 £700,000