The Communities, Environment and Highways Select Committee met on 10 April 2025 to discuss a utilities engagement programme, highways term maintenance contract performance and a forward work programme. The committee was also scheduled to discuss questions submitted by the councillors.

Highways Term Maintenance Contract Performance

The committee was scheduled receive an overview of the Highways Term Maintenance Contract delivered through Ringway Infrastructure Services over the past two years.

The report pack stated that the contract commenced on 27 April 2022, with an initial term of ten years and the option for the council to extend it for up to a further eleven years.

The contract covers a wide range of services, including:

• a 24/7 immediate response service
• safety defect repairs
• winter service
• flood prevention
• line marking and sign replacement
• carriageway and footway surfacing
• structures and safety barriers

The committee was scheduled to discuss performance indicators used to monitor the performance of the Ringway contract. The report pack noted that the contract has remained agile to the changing budget and the changing needs of the county council, and that an enormous amount of delivery has been achieved through the Ringway contract in the last two years. This includes resurfacing 227 miles of roads and 94 miles of pavement, fixing over 144,000 potholes and carrying out approximately 350,000 gully cleans.

The report pack also stated that, like many other authorities, there have been spikes in the number of potholes in Surrey over the last few years. It said that significant changes to incoming volumes can negatively impact on performance and this has been the case for the safety defect service, and that as part of the monitoring and improvement cycle changes have been made to the contract to mitigate for future volume spikes and improve the service for residents. One of the key changes has been the empowerment of repair gangs to carry out ‘fix now’ repairs where they find defects that haven’t yet been reported.

The committee was also scheduled to discuss road markings. The report pack stated that it is acknowledged that, in recent years, due to historical budgetary pressures, the condition of road markings across Surrey has not always met the standard expected by residents. It said that in the summer of 2023, a Cabinet Task & Finish Group reviewed this issue, and as a direct result, the general road marking budget was more than doubled for 2024/25, set at £1.8 million for 2025/26, and that additionally, the Parking team has been allocated a budget of £300,000 to support the installation and maintenance of enforceable parking restrictions, bays, and yellow box junctions.

The report pack also stated that there are a number of areas where a contract of this scope, scale and value provides the council the opportunity for added value from the service provider and its supply chain which might be less available if the services were commissioned in smaller lots through a wider panel of providers, and that notably these areas include greener futures and carbon reduction, delivering social value and in how we approach improving the services delivered and embracing the opportunities for innovation.

The committee was scheduled to discuss social value, and the report pack stated that Ringway, along with some of the other partner providers, have been working to deliver a range of social value interventions working with charities, schools and other education providers as well as recruiting from under-represented groups, and that Ringway have delivered over £500,000 worth of social value (as measured by TOMS which is the National standard of Themes, Outcomes and Measures of Social Value).

The committee was also scheduled to discuss improvement and innovation, and the report pack stated that the service works closely with its service provider partners including Ringway alongside other highway authorities to ensure they continue to develop and iterate how they work to ensure the most up to date techniques, tools and materials are being used in their services.

The committee was also scheduled to discuss greener futures and carbon reduction, and the report pack stated that the construction sector is well known to have a significant carbon footprint, in part this is due to the materials being used such as concrete, steel and asphalt which use substantial amounts of energy in their production and installation.

Utilities Engagement Programme

The committee was scheduled to receive an update on the utilities engagement programme.

The report pack stated that in January 2024, the Communities, Environment and Highways Select Committee were asked to undertake a series of scrutiny sessions with the water, energy, and digital utility providers in Surrey, and that the objectives of the sessions were to establish what is going well, what the issues are, and how these can be better managed, resolved, and mitigated, a set of joint actions to progress more collaborative strategic planning with a strong place-based focus, and a future mechanism for strategic engagement with utilities.

The report pack stated that scrutiny sessions were held with the water and energy utilities in January and April 2024, and that it was agreed with the Chairman in October that a session with digital utilities wasn’t required due to existing constructive engagement and digital utility providers already participating in the Streetworks taskforce sessions.

The report pack stated that alongside the Taskforce activity, other day-to-day improvements on utilities management have been realised by the team, and that the durations of works by utility companies have been steadily reducing over the past 2 years from a peak of 12,058 days of highway occupation by utility companies in May 2023 to 4,341 in November 2024, and that this, in part, has been achieved by additional scrutiny and challenge of SCC officers and means that residents will be benefitting from shorter periods of disruption.

The report pack stated that following the sessions, engagement and positive collaboration have been ongoing with utility providers, and that it is recommended that this work transitions back to the service as business as usual.

The report pack stated that the first of the utility sessions was held in January 2024 with water utility providers, and that following the session, greater collaboration on demand management was agreed, as well as working together to explore the replication of the Greater London Authority (GLA) Infrastructure Mapping Tool in Surrey to cover planned, reactive, and emergency works, encouraging improvement in quality and availability of information to customers on planned works through signage and targeted communications, closer working between Thames Water and SCC on the development of the next Drainage and Wastewater Management Plans (DWMPs), greater collaborative working on the development of the next regional plan with Water Resources South East (WRSE) with the proposal to include SCC in representation on relevant boards, input to the national regulator as to the KPIs that matter to our local communities as part of the next five-year plans, exploring a Surrey-wide plan, SCC and WRSE to investigate a single geographic plan for water and better linkage between local and regional plans, closer collaboration with SCC to understand what major developments are coming forward, the implications for the capacity of the network, and how to prioritise and encourage green infrastructure solutions, and more dialogue with SCC Flood Risk Management Team to address flooding issues and delivery of priorities in drainage and wastewater management plans.

The report pack stated that there has been some positive engagement with water utilities in Surrey, and that in addition, this has helped stimulate national work with the water utilities, DEFRA¹, and OFWAT² to look at developing a more coordinated approach to tackling the linked issues of too much, too little, and too dirty water, and that water companies, and particularly Thames Water, are now regular attendees at the Surrey Flood Risk Management Board and participate in community resilience meetings with residents affected by flooding. The report pack stated that the second of the utility sessions was held in April 2024 with energy utility providers, and that following the session, improved process and engagement on grid connections was agreed, as well as greater collaboration between the Local Authority and Distribution Network Operator (DNO) on strategic energy planning, and greater collaboration between the Local Authority and DNOs on Streetworks, and more effective and resilient strategic planning and support to vulnerable residents.

The report pack stated that SCC have had consistent engagement with Surrey’s DNOs in recent years and most recently, post the Select Committee scrutiny process, through the Local Area Energy Planning Process (LAEP), and that LAEPs are a national government initiative led by Local Authorities and DNOs at the County or unitary level, and that the development of LAEPs varies across local authority areas and the scrutiny process has stimulated increased collaboration on the development of the Plan for Surrey.

The report pack stated that it was agreed with the Chairman in November 2024 that a session with digital utilities was not needed, and that there is a Digital Strategy being managed as part of the Transformation Programme that sets out the approach to digital and how it will enable improved outcomes for residents in Surrey over the next five years, and that part of this includes the Digital Inclusion Plan, which looks at seven key themes and maps digital inclusion support across the county.

The report pack stated that key recommendations from both Water and Energy sessions were for greater collaboration on improved communications, signage, and utilisation of planning tools for planned, reactive, and emergent works, and that to progress these actions, it was agreed that the utilities taskforce would include all utilities within Surrey, and that the taskforce has had participation from 14 utility companies to date.

The report pack stated that improvements seen so far include discussions on how SCC and utilities can share information on their longer-term programmes (potentially using a shared mapping tool) to identify opportunities for collaboration and to enable better coordination and communication of works, progression of discussions between SCC, utilities, and the GLA with regards to developing and implementing a shared mapping tool, utilities have agreed to provide SCC with lists of “planned” emergency works to help mitigate the impact of these types of work on the network, and an ongoing Communications Group with communications representatives from SCC and utility companies has also been implemented to discuss best practice and work towards agreed joint Communications Protocols.

Forward Work Programme and Recommendations Tracker

The committee was scheduled to review and agree the Forward Work Programme (FWP) and Recommendation Tracker (RT).

The Forward Work Programme covers the expected activity in 2025/26.

The Recommendation Tracker tracks recommendations made by the committee as well as actions or requests.

Member Questions

Councillor Catherine Baart was scheduled to ask:

• Whether lane rental fees can be added to a councillor’s Highways allocation as a mechanism for directing the money to the area most impacted by traffic lights, and whether there is a mechanism for increasing lane rental fees if the same utility company puts traffic lights on the same section of road within a given time period, as a means of discouraging repeated temporary fixes rather than a single longer lasting solution. The response stated that it would not be possible within the Lane Rental guidelines to use the Surplus Funds as part of Councillors Highway Allocations, and that there is no mechanism for increasing lane rental fees if the same utility company puts traffic lights on the same section of road within a given time period.
• For an update on the county council’s tree planting target, when the target will be achieved and what is likely to happen to the target as a result of the formation of unitary councils. The response stated that Surrey County Council’s Tree Planting Programme is complete for this year and planning is now under way for the next season of planting starting in September 2025, and that working together with partners, the Council is making great progress towards planting 1.2 million trees by 2030 and it on target.
• What decides the response time on pedestrian crossing lights, and whether, as part of LTP4[^3] and encouraging walking and cycling, the response times of pedestrian crossings can be reviewed to provide a quicker response for pedestrians while still giving drivers time to react. [^3]: The Local Transport Plan The response stated that the design and operation of Traffic Signals in Surrey is carried out in line with the Department for Transport design standards set out in Chapter 6 of the Traffic Signs Manual, and that all Traffic signal sites in Surrey are designed and installed with detectors that optimise the operation of the installation.
• What is the base standard of pavement quality and condition; to what extent does this take account of the safety of wheelchair & mobility scooter users and those with young children in buggies & scooters who require a smooth and level surface for stability and personal safety; and how are the needs of different groups in the hierarchy of road users factored into pavement condition considerations. The response stated that the standard for quality and condition of pavements is set out in the Specification for Highway Works, and that as recommended by the Code of Practice Well Managed Highway Infrastructure the footway hierarchy which forms part of the Highway Hierarchy Policy considers older and younger people by giving weight to places people walk to or between, such as schools, care homes, doctors surgeries, dentists, shopping centres, transport hubs and bus stops, and considering local routes to parks, playgrounds, childcare centres, and car parks.