Council bosses are promising ‘tangible’ improvements across the region in both the short and longer terms.
They have acknowledged ‘things need to change’ and say the recruitment of extra staff to do repairs and maintenance will mean the public will see a difference in the next few months.
Councillors recently agreed an extra £800,000 for the department and some of that is being used to employ ten more operatives and two supervisors, all due to start in December and be in place for 15 months, to cover two demanding winter periods.
A detailed report on the improvement plans will go to next week’s communities committee but speaking ahead of that meeting, interim director of roads and infrastructure Harry Hay told DNG Media of his aims. He said: “Roads and all things related to roads are of great interest, not just to residents but to visitors to Dumfries and Galloway too.
“It’s something the council very much recognise and wants to do as much as possible to ensure our roads network and related issues are as good as they possibly can be.
“Over the last 12 months the council has made it very clear that investment in roads is a priority. We acknowledge things need to be done differently and done better across the whole of D and G.”
Next week’s report will outline what they are trying to do ‘over the forthcoming years’ and he added: “This is about services being delivered in a customer focused way and in a way that makes the biggest impact possible for the budget.”
Mr Hay wants the changes to be ‘tangible’ to those on the ground and to make it easy to report issues. As a result, new technology is being brought in to be “as responsive as possible”.
He said: “If someone takes the effort to report a fault then the service can deal with that as responsively as possible
“It does not mean we can sort every repair overnight, we need to be realistic. There will still be a hierarchy, but ultimately we want all customers that when they report something, to understand where it is in the system and they do not feel they need to report it multiple times.”
Communities Committee chairman Cllr Archie Dryburgh is confident of the benefits and said: “The opportunity to report something has increased but there are several different ways you can report something and these bits at the moment do not talk to each other.
“We are funding an IT infrastructure that will talk to each other and respond to the person who has put that report in. So, it’s a better outcome.”
Being more proactive is another goal and Mr Hay said: “This time of year there’s a lot of surface water around and one of the important areas of work is gullies and drains. If we don’t keep on top of that small issue, it could escalate and turn into a big issue, especially in winter with freezing.
“Keeping roads safe in winter is an absolute one of our priorities, the treatment of roads etc. It’s a constant analysis this time of year.”
Turning to the new staff, the roads boss said they will be spread out across the area and used for both the winter roads response and maintenance jobs like gulley and drain clearing.
He said: “I hope people will see a difference these staff will make.
“Also, the existing workforce operatives are out and about and the public see they are hugely committed to what they do.”
Meanwhile, consultant Stephen Hall has been brought in to help and he said: “It’s fantastic to get £800k into the service. We are also looking at other things to spend that money on as well: it might be other additional staff or specialist contractors to do more work for us.”
He also stressed the difference they will make and said: “If we get a bad winter it’s in spring that you get more break up on the roads, that’s when the additional workforce can hit the roads and respond. That’s why it’s important to have these additional teams.”
Mr Hall also revealed why Dumfries and Galloway fares so badly on the national stage when it comes to roads, of which they are responsible for 4200 kilometres: “Data shows for the last few years Dumfries and Galloway have, in effect, had the second worst carriageways in Scotland,” he said.
“Dumfries and Galloway does have a very big proportion of the network that is unclassified and these are of much less robust construction.
“The region has some challenges, but we are seeking to put forward proposals to begin improving against these metrics and move forward to a higher level of performance.
“We are not shying away from it. Politicians and the officer team absolutely get how important this is to the public and want to do something about it.”
Summing up, Cllr Dryburgh said: “Obviously we want to see bit of a difference in 18 months to two years, but right away too, and people will see that with the investment, with the new operatives.
“I do believe this will build momentum. We are committed to taking this forward.”
