A new era in Cumbrian highways maintenance begins this week as the first of 24 Highways Stewards takes to the county’s roads.
Cumbria County Council is investing £1million a year in the brand new service which will see the arrival on the ground of 24 staff each dedicated to dealing with highways issues in a handful of rural parishes.
Cumbria Highways, the partnership between Cumbria County Council, Amey and Capita Symonds, is employing and training the stewards to provide a special service which will be highly responsive to local needs in rural areas.
The first steward starts work this week serving the South Lakeland area of Upper Kent and Shap (see below for list of parishes)
A special launch event where representatives from the parishes and the communities can get to know the steward for their area will be held at St Oswald’s Church Hall, Burneside, on Wednesday, June 18, at 7pm.
Media are welcome to attend. Several high quality images of stewards at work and with their brand new vans are attached to this release.
The Highways Stewards will live close to the communities they serve and will be able to build working relationships with their parishes, councillors and other key figures in the area. They will benefit from a wealth of local knowledge that will help them to keep on top of the small but important jobs that often make the most difference to local people.
The stewards will be equipped with tools and a van and will be trained to deal with many day-to-day jobs such as clearing blocked gullies and digging drainage channels, cleaning, repairing and replacing signs, weeding and cutting back overhanging vegetation and doing some road surface repair work.
They will find and fix many kinds of highways problems in their areas, be able to call in extra resources for bigger jobs and help inspectors and engineers identify areas where major works might be needed.
Ian Stewart, cabinet member responsible for Highways and transport, said: "This is a very exciting development and shows some serious investment in making sure that the highways service is responsive to local needs. We believe the Highways Stewards scheme will provide the best service to parishes and the best levels of public satisfaction by working with the community at a local level to deal with many of the small but important jobs on the highway network."
The Highways Steward’s role is similar to that of a traditional ‘lengthsman’. Cumbria highways developed the service with the help of individual parish councils and from Cumbria Association of Local Councils (CALC). The principle was tested using a pilot scheme which proved successful and popular.
Eighteen of the 24 stewards have already been recruited, trained and equipped. The coming weeks will see similar events arranged around the county as the stewards start work in their areas. Members of the media will be given the chance to attend some of those events as well.
ENDS
Please note: Cumbria County Council's media team telephone numbers have now changed.
Media enquiries to Justin Hawkins, Media Officer on 01228 226334
Note
The Upper Kent / Shap highways stewards area covers the parishes of parishes of Burneside, Docker, Fawcett Forest, Firbank, Grayrigg, Hugill, Kentmere, Lambrigg, Longsleddale, Over Staveley, Patterdale, Scalthwaite Rigg, Shap, Shap Rural, Skelsmergh, Staveley with Ings, Strickland Roger, Whinfell and Whitwell and Selside.
Each steward will oversee around 156 miles (250 kilometres) of road. In broad strokes their work will be:
•Minor "jobbing" work on the local network will account for around 85% of workload
•Direct links to local members, parish highway representatives, other community groups and Cumbria Highways staff
•"Eyes and ears" of the highway service in their areas monitoring maintenance and checking quality.
•Providing communication links at a very local level.
•Other functions will be added as the role develops e.g. assisting with the development of larger works programmes.
Where Highways Stewards will work in rural areas, two-man Area Highway Teams will concentrate on the main urban areas where generally heavier and more labour intensive activities are required.