New highway maintenance framework ‘will reduce the likelihood of potholes’ says NNC
A senior council member has said it needs to “reassure our public that we are doing the job we said we would do” on dealing with highway defects and potholes, as a new framework setting out expectations on maintenance has been approved.
North Northants Council’s (NNC) executive has updated its Highway Inspection Maintenance and Response Framework (HMIRF), replacing the previous county council’s inspection manual from 2019.
The HMIRF sets out how the highways authority will inspect and respond to highway defects, while improving safety and consistency and supporting faster, more permanent repairs.
Key changes set out in the document include clearer investigation triggers and categorisation for defects, adjusting response times for priority one (P1) defects from 24 hours to the end of the next day, and reducing the priority four (P4) defect response times to 90 days, down from 180.
They say these measures will allow the highway contractor to plan more permanent fixes instead of temporary patches and increase efficiency in the scheduling of work by batching together repairs.
Speaking at the meeting on Tuesday (April 14), Cllr Chris McGiffen, executive member for highways and travel, said: “This is set against a background of decades of chronic underfunding, so we have to be better at what we do. We have fundamentally moved from a sticking plaster solution to a preventative maintenance focus.
“We have to have a framework that allows us to be as efficient as genuinely possible. It simply characterises the attitude that we have for it and are doing already.
“It therefore reduces the likelihood of potholes, surface deterioration, and sudden failures.”
Cllr Eddie McDonald, deputy leader of NNC, said that the public were beginning to see this type of preventative repairs being introduced through recent programmes of resurfacing works on stretches of local roads.
He added: “I think it’s important we get it right first time – my inbox is flooded with complaints about [people] believing that this isn’t the case and we need to reassure our public that we are doing the job we said we would do.”
Some concerns were raised that the shift from a 24-hour target for P1 response times would “feel like a step backwards” for residents and appear as a reduction in service. Members were told that the move to ‘end of next day’ repairs would reduce unnecessary out-of-hours deployments, reduce pressure on teams to rush and support more predictable programming without compromising safety.
It was also clarified that these are maximum limits and repairs may be completed sooner where practicable. Any emergency repair which presents an immediate danger to the public will still be conducted within two hours.
A live trial of the reduced P4 timescale has been in operation since October last year and has seen a reduction in defects moving to priority three, which NNC says indicates earlier interventions and improved road network stability.
The executive unanimously approved the new repairs framework, which will go live with immediate effect. Annual reviews will take place to ensure that the plan is updated in line with changing legislation and priorities.