It was always going to be an interesting debate. With the exception of winter 2013/14, snow has fallen more frequently over the past five year’s than in decades bringing a number of challenges to winter service managers and engineers across the UK. Alongside this, September 2013 saw the launch of Appendix H-new winter service guidance updated as part of Well-Maintained Highways.
Nine month’s on - how many councils have implemented the recommendations in Appendix H, how many haven’t and what is the general opinion of the new recommendations and how manageable they are?
These were the main topics up for debate at the Cold Comfort/ Compass Minerals Winter Service Debate, held at the Midland Hotel in Manchester in June. Organised by Surveyor, the idea behind the Round Table was to take a snapshot of the winter maintenance sector, looking at what lies ahead while sharing ideas for best practice across the industry.
Delegates first heard a presentation from Caroline Valentine, highway manager for Kent CC and, winter duty officer at the council, Earl Bourner.
Ms Valentine said winter service delivery in Kent CC had been a priority over the last five or six years and the service delivery has improved making the council more efficient and effective over that period. She said Appendix H had already been a driving force in influencing the philosophy behind Kent’s winter service strategy development.
Appendix H has also given Kent the confidence to lower spread rates and given the council a template via the Interim Precautionary Decision Matrix Guide, to create a useful matrix which is used in every decision making process.
Storage of salt has been another important consideration for Kent once again, driven by Appendix H. Currently, Kent CC has four salt barns-two new ones and two that need updating but there are not the capital funds to do that at the moment. The council also uses the Compass Minerals salt covering system to help manage its storage system and is also considering how to address the issues of rotating the salt stocks to protect quality.
‘Appendix H has definitely lead us to consider things more closely on an number of levels,’ says Ms Valentine.
Kent CC has recently moved to using the prewet system which was based on other best practice guidance in the industry and is something that has brought savings and driven efficiencies.
‘As far as spread rates are concerned there was some nervousness around reducing from 20g rates down to 8g prewet bit was definitely something we had to do. Now we are confident at spreading at lower rates and that more importantly the data and knowledge that it is still effective at that rate,’ says Ms Valentine. She says in the future she will consider using Safecote treated salt but budgets are restricting development in this area.
One delegate asked about how Kent CC is dealing with public expectation. ‘The challenge of a mild winter is that people forget severe ones very quickly and may not undertstand why there is still a cost associated with winter even though there is snow on the ground. This winter was a good example of this. I think for the first time in six years we barely had any snow at all,’ says Ms Valentine.
Another delegate said that very wet winter, as experienced across the country this winter also brings the challenge of creating a lot of run off and leaving standing water on the road, which may freeze, leading to extensively icy roads.
Looking ahead, Ms Valentine said she felt innovation in the industry will be important but inevitably will be restricted by budgetary constraints. Managing the public’s expectations will also become increasingly important with the increase in the use of social media. Currently Kent stocks 23,000 tonnes of salt and also has a strategic pile of 3,000 tonnes. She says Appendix H has promoted her to also consider the issue of moisture content is salt, with contractor Amey developing a system to address this.
‘I think above all, the reports and data that we have been able to produce have proved vital in the way that we run this service,’ she says. ‘We have been lucky in some respects, we haven’t had any cuts to our budgets, but no increases at the same time.’
‘We have done some great work over the last few years. We are always under pressure to do more routes and salt more often but the work we are doing at the moment on route optimization should help. It’s all about how we do better with what we have got mainly. Our aim is to be more innovative in the next few years but we have to remember the cuts we have seen might not be as drastic as what is to come in the future. The important thing is we deliver what we said we would.’ says Ms Valentine.
The second presentation was by Derek Twigg, assistant network manager at Hertfordshire CC. He focused on ways of making the most of Appendix H. Derek was keen to remind the audience that it is intended as guidance to assist winter maintenance teams to ensure best practice across the industry. His council has reviewed its winter maintenance plans in the light of Appendix H and made sure its plans are ‘citizen-focused’, involving local communities as far as possible.
Delegates agreed that this winter has had its challenges despite the winter being mild.
One delegate, who represented a large city says he was developing his strategy alongside guidance such as Appendix H. The challenge for him, he says, was making sure there was consistent delivery across the city. Other agreed that the wet winter meant that actually there were still many precautionary gritting runs even though the winter was milder.
Another delegate said he thought Appendix H was too complicated and did not allow for geographically and topographical changes across the country. A fellow delegate said he was worried about the legal implications of making a change in-line with Appendix H and backing this up in court.
‘All our recent winter service policy plans have been revised in line with Appendix H which we have been able to plan in advance and focus on efficiency. Our plan is to be more citizen focused and involve local communities to help us deliver winter,’ says Mr Twigg.
'The council has a network of 183 residents groups for this. They not only help with gritting during severe weather but also feed back vital information.’
Like Kent CC, Herfordshire CC has five duty winter officers. It also has 13 weather stations across the county and its weather forecast comes via a regional consortium. Also the resident groups feed back vital information and there is a developing relationship with Hertfordshire police.
Despite it being a large county, Hertfordshire made 34 gritting runs last year compared to 79 the year before. Other counties had done 70 against 100 the year before.
‘I put this down to the work we have been doing around efficiency and the more accurate data we are getting from our decision making matrix as well as our overall project to reduce gritting runs and become more efficient,’ says Mr Twigg.
He says the bus companies presented a challenge in that they often changed their routes without informing the county. ‘We are also under enormous pressure to grit all of our cycle routes-which continue to increase every year.’
The work done over the last few years has seen Hertfordshire’s revised winter service plan deliver significant results. ‘We have an excellent contractor but the client decision making process has definitely been the right way for us. The important thing to remember is that Appendix H is only guidance. Don’t get to hung up in following it to the letter but if you do follow it you will see the results,’ says Mr Twigg.
After detailed discussion of many of the points raised by Ms Valentine and Mr Twigg, the second half of the event moved on to a debate session on funding for winter service. The two Panel Members were Nick Yarwood, Highways Contracts and Programme Manager for Worcestershire County Council and David Davies, Principal Maintenance Engineer & County Fleet Manager for Lincolnshire County Council.
The debate focused on pressures on budgets owing to austerity measures and pressures from flooding issues, especially after a mild winter.
Generally speaking, attendees felt that despite one mild winter, the memories of recent severe cold weather events have raised the profile of winter maintenance so significantly that there is no political will to get caught out in the future and budgets, although squeezed, have not been significantly reduced.
The Round Table finished up with a workshop session on lessons learned from last winter and looking forward to what the future will bring for the industry. Generally it was agreed that this last mild winter has provided valuable time to reflect on winter service delivery. It was also felt that the more restricted budgets become, the more important it will be to increase the sophistication of winter service maintenance.
