Highway Infrastructure Asset Management Policy

The Council's has three main visions for the Borough, one of which is, making the Borough a place with a thriving economy where everyone has opportunities to succeed.

The provision, maintenance and management of public infrastructure such as highways, bridges, street lighting, public rights of way and public open spaces is key to the delivery of this vision by:

• maximising opportunities for external funding to develop and maintain key assets and infrastructure
• management and development of key assets to improve resilience and maintain a safe and accessible transport network

The highway infrastructure asset is the most valuable single asset owned by the Council and is vital to local economic prosperity and residents' quality of life. The significant levels of funding necessary for the management of this asset are under continuous scrutiny, with increasing pressure from central government and the public for transparency, accountability and ensuring the most efficient use of the resources that we have available.

Highway infrastructure asset management is a key factor in enabling the Council to deliver its services and corporate objectives in an efficient and effective manner. It enables the management of highway infrastructure assets through long-term planning ensuring that standards are defined and performance measured, within available resources, with a clear understanding of stakeholder's needs and expectations. It also supports the case for funding and ensures better communication with customers and stakeholders, giving them a greater understanding of the contribution highway infrastructure assets make to economic growth and the needs of the local community.

The Council believes that effective highway infrastructure asset management is fundamental to the provision of its services and the delivery of its long-term vision and strategy. Asset management principles enable informed decisions to be made about investment and maintenance funding, assist in the targeting of resources to where they can be most effective and enables the identification of the risks associated with its statutory duty to manage and maintain public infrastructure.

In adopting an asset management approach to the management of the highway infrastructure asset we will implement a methodology which includes:

• applying a systematic approach to the management of highway assets which takes the long-term view
• enhancing current methods for optimising and prioritising highway maintenance schemes to take account of whole life costs, risk management and defined levels of service
• the use of lifecycle planning to determining evidence based, cost effective planned maintenance treatments to be carried out at the optimum time in the assets lifecycle in order to maximise the life of the asset and to understand the level of funding required over the lifespan of the asset
• developing rolling works programmes for all highway assets with the aim to deliver long-term sustainable preventative maintenance schemes
• a Communications Strategy which ensures a clear and effective dialogue with customers and stakeholders giving them the opportunity to contribute to the management of the highway asset;
• consultation with customers and stakeholders and consideration of their needs and expectations when defining levels of service and publishing our performance against these targets;
• striving to achieve an overall Excellent level of service for the highway infrastructure, subject to sufficient funding being made available (regular review of the performance management framework to set realistic levels of service and performance targets which will enable auditing and monitoring of the delivery of the asset management strategy and demonstrate that investment is being used efficiently to deliver value for money)
• assessment and management of current and future critical, strategic, tactical and operational risks associated with highway infrastructure assets along with determining appropriate mitigation measures. This will assist in reducing the risk of injury to customers and minimise the financial exposure of the council
• managing and regularly reviewing our asset management policy and highway infrastructure related plans making sure these documents are aligned to our corporate objectives and current recommendations from central government and relevant professional bodies
• maintaining, reviewing and updating our asset registers to ensure we hold sufficient and up-to-date data
• benchmarking our asset management policy, plans and strategies with other similar local authorities and learning from examples of best practice
• actively collaborating with other local authorities and service providers to ensure the delivery of improved services, greater efficiencies and increased financial savings
• entering into shared procurement alliances with other local authorities in order to procure common services and deliver significant economies and improved highway maintenance services
• undertaking reviews of highway maintenance service areas in order to understand these operations through the eyes of our customers and stakeholders with the purpose of identifying processes that don't add value and can therefore be eliminated resulting in a betters customer experience at a reduced cost
• proactively seeking continual improvement of our asset capabilities and activities to ensure value for money for customers and stakeholders

All of the above actions, when taken as a whole, provide a robust decision-making process which recognises the relationship between cost, performance and levels of service. This in turn allows potential for the delivery of improved levels of service for the resources available or, where owing to reduced budgets, can assist in ensuring the effects of a decrease in levels of service are mitigated as far as is reasonably practicable.