HERTFORDSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL
HIGHWAYS AND WASTE MANAGEMENT CABINET PANEL
THURSDAY, 18 SEPTEMBER 2014 AT 2.00PM
Agenda Item
No.
6
WINTER SERVICE OPERATIONAL PLAN (WSOP)
Report of the Chief Executive & Director of Environment
Author:
Jon Prince, Group Network Strategy & Compliance
(Tel: 01992 658112)
Executive Member: Terry Douris, Highways & Waste Management
1.
Purpose of report
1.1
The purpose of this report is to:







Report on the operation of the Winter Service Operational Plan
(WSOP) for season 2013/2014;
Report on developments to the WSOP for 2014/2015;
Seek the Panel’s comments prior to publishing the WSOP for season
2014/2015;
Consider continuation of the provision of salt bins to facilitate selfhelp;
Consider continuation of the provision of bagged salt to community
groups to facilitate self-help;
Consider and recommend proposals to provide support to schools in
severe weather conditions; and
Report on potential developments, initiatives and efficiencies for
future winter seasons.
2.
Summary
2.1
Every highway authority should have a Winter Service Plan that contains
the information laid out in “The Code of Practice for Highways
Maintenance Management – Well Maintained Highways” (revised by the
National Winter Salt Research Group NWSRG June 2013).
2.2
The 2013/2014 Winter Service Operational Plan was agreed by Highways
and Waste Management Panel on the 12 September 2013 and was made
accessible to the public through Hertfordshire County Council’s website.
2.3
The Code of Practice recommends the WSOP is reviewed annually to
accommodate changes in legislation, best practice, and local operating
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requirements, including salt stock resilience levels. It is then presented to
Highways and Waste Management Panel for consideration.

Early preparation and pre-planning during the summer months resulted
in a successful delivery of the 2013/2014 Winter Service Plan and the
Cinter service for Hertfordshire.

There were 34 precautionary salting outings during 2013/2014; the
lowest ever number with no severe weather events and so a relatively
mild winter.

This mild winter followed one of the most severe winters in
Hertfordshire with 78 precautionary salting outings in 2012/2013.

Based on the annual review some changes and improvements are
proposed for the coming winter seasons.
3 Recommendations
3.1
The Highways and Waste Management Panel is requested to:

Comment on the Winter Service Operational Plan 2014/2015 prior to
its’ publication on the County Council’s website (without its appendices
as these contain personal contact details);

Comment on the proposal to continue with the existing salt bin policy;

Comment on the proposal to continue the policy of providing bagged
salt to groups to facilitate self-help;

Consider the level of service to be provided to support schools during
severe winter weather incidents; and

Consider any potential developments, initiatives and efficiencies for
future winter seasons.
4.
Background
Winter operations for the season 2013/2014
4.1
The winter season of 2013-2014 was exceptionally mild and wet with no
significant accumulation of snow on the roads during the entire season.
Five of the six months had temperatures well above the average, the
exception being November, which was a rather chilly month.
4.2
Hertfordshire County Council Highways carried out 34 salting runs.
Spreaders salted all 2,500km of the County’s precautionary salting
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network and 51km of cycle paths (urban cycleways open to mopeds where
accessible to vehicle mounted or towed spreaders).
4.3
34 outings is the lowest number of salting runs the service ahs recorded
and immediately followed a year which saw the highest number of salting
outings (78).
4.4
There were no snow or severe weather events in 2013/2014, compared
with 13 days over two events in the previous season.
4.5
The following graph and table provides a breakdown of precautionary
salting runs from 2008 to 2014. The graph shows cumulative outings.
Outings/Average per month by year
90
2008-09
80
2009-10
70
2010-11
Outings
60
2011-12
50
40
2012-13
30
2013-14
20
Average
10
0
Month
Total
outings
2008/09
2009/10
2010/11
2011/12
2012/13
2013/14
76
78
46
50
78
34
3
5
Developments to the WSOP for 2014/2015
5.1
A few minor changes or operational improvements have been included in
the WSOP for the coming winter season. This includes improvements in
the administration of the Self Help scheme, tagging all grit bins and minor
revisions to some wording in the document.
5.2
The County Council’s 12 road-side weather stations have been
refurbished and upgraded for this season. These weather stations provide
decision making duty officers with information about current weather
conditions, residual salt quantities on the road surface, wind and
precipitation and temperature values.
5.3
There is now earlier warning to officers of roads which are not able to be
treated within the required treatment time. This allows for alternative
methods of treatment to be instructed.
5.4
A common cause of roads not being treated is roads being obstructed by
parked cars. Roads that may have bus routes and daytime parking
restrictions on them are often obstructed during night-time salting
operations. This has been resolved by a greater use of smaller vehicles
more suited to Hertfordshire’s roads. A knock on effect of this is that more
vehicles/drivers are needed to salt the same amount of road which results
in additional costs.
5.5
Smaller vehicles have allowed for more effective treatment of the
cycleways in Stevenage and other restricted roads where parking or other
obstructions prevent our normal gritting vehicle getting access. Although
this resource was not used during 2013/2014, there is still a significant
cost to HCC just for having the vehicles and resources available.
5.6
Approximately a third of the cost of the winter budget is spent just for
having the equipment available. Even if there were no salting outing in a
year the County Council would still spend over a million pounds for having
the equipment ready to use. The more equipment there is available to
treat more areas or restricted access areas the more this ‘standing charge’
will increase.
5.7
The application process for provision of bagged salt to community groups
to make it more straight forward has been reviewed. This is in anticipation
of continuing with this service. In addition for the winter season 2014/2015
officers will be introducing some administrative and control measures to
assist in a more effective delivery of this ‘self-help’ scheme.
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Panels comments on the WSOP 2014/2015
6.1
The WSOP 2014/2015 reflects the recommendations where appropriate to
the Council from the new National Winter Service Research Group
‘Appendix H’ guidance.
6.2
The general format and content of the WSOP has been tested in court on
various occasions and has been found to be robust.
6.3
On an annual basis new developments, innovations and efficiencies are
considered for inclusion into the County Council’s operations whilst
considering the whole customer journey, level of service expected and
budget pressures.
6.4
The approved plan for 2014/15 will be accessible via the County Council’s
website. It will incorporate the requirements of the Code of Practice for
Highway Maintenance Management as well as the specifics and broader
winter policy for Hertfordshire County Council Highways.
6.5
The Winter Service Operational Plan 2014/2015 is at Appendix 2.
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Provision of salt bins
7.1
The Council’s asset register has 1,141 salt bins recorded. These have
been placed on (or near) the highway network over many years, from
many sources, and to varying policies.
7.2
Although once removed as an efficiency saving in 1992, salt bins are a
popular means of self-help and were soon reinstated. They also provide
the public and communities with a degree of ‘feel good’ that there is a
safety back up in extreme situations.
7.3
As a ‘quality promise’ in the current highway contract all salt bins have
recently be ‘tagged’ with a unique number making them much easier to
identify and to audit during the refilling and maintenance process.
7.4
The cost of refilling and maintaining salt bins plus the administration time
involved in dealing with issues arising from salt bin queries is high
compared to the overall highway service. The annual cost for the current
level of salt bin provision is around £470,000. Even if the grit bin service
were removed, there would still be costs associated in dealing with
customer queries.
7.5
Over time the type of salt bin and the policy for their use has become more
consistent. Unfortunately ‘theft’ of salt from salt bins remains common
place.
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7.6
The requirements within the current highways contract are:
The Contractor will record, manage, purchase, deploy, maintain,
replace and restock these to minimum of 40 litres during the winter
operational period;
Maintaining and re-stocking the 160litre salt bins.
7.7
As per the previous contract which ran from 2002, salt bins will be
replaced from stock and not on a like for like basis as many bins are old
products no longer available.
7.8
In 2011 Members agreed the salt bin provision service should not be
grown. The current position with salt bin provision is:

Not to deploy any new salt bins, but to retain the current position, only
to maintain or replace any existing bins which become damaged or
stolen;

Existing salt bins can be relocated to areas identified by County
Council Members funded by the locality budget scheme;

Parish and residential groups can purchase their own bins but these
are not to be positioned on the public Highway.
7.9
The officer recommendation is to continue with this position on salt bins.
8.
Provision of bagged salt to community groups
8.1
Over the last two winter seasons the Council’s Highways service has
been offering ‘free’ bagged salt to various community groups. These can
be parish councils, recognised community groups, or member approved
residents associations.
8.2
These ‘responsible’ bodies use the salt for ‘self-help’ to help clear local
snow and ice on the highway in their community.
8.3
Up to 1 tonne is available for parishes, and up to 850Kg available to
community/residents groups. It has become a popular facility and helps to
promote community engagement.
8.4
By letting local community groups focus on their important areas it helps
prevent vital highways resources being diverted away from keeping the
highest priority roads across the County treated or having to provide
further resource which are scarce during severe weather.
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8.5
A similar process is adopted with district and borough councils. As these
have a much greater resource available and provide much needed
additional support during severe weather, they each have access to up to
30 tonnes of salt for use on the highway.
8.6
The provision of salt to community groups is a relatively new service,
which is outside of the standard winter service in the highways contract.
As the process has become established the costs can be refined and
standard rates established. This service could now be delivered for around
£100,000 per annum.
8.7
This cost needs to be offset against what it would have cost to attend
every reported incident of snow and ice in local areas.
8.8
Officer recommendation is to continue with this salt bag service but not
allowing growth beyond the value of £150,000 which can be achieved
within the current winter service budget.
8.9
See Appendix 1 for winter self-help documentation.
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Support to schools during severe winter weather
9.1
A commitment was made to the Cabinet Panel meeting on 12 September
2013 to review arrangements for supporting schools during severe winter
weather. The resultant options are presented in this section.
9.2
There is not an absolute duty to remove snow and ice from the highway
(ref Section 41 Highways Act 1980, modified by Section 111 of the
Railways and Transport Act 2003). However, a Highway Authority should
have a WSOP which sets out clear priorities for how they intend to deal
with snow and ice in a reasonable manner.
9.3
It is clearly not possible to remove all snow and ice and therefore priorities
include for:
9.4

treating the highway with salt to help prevent ice forming or snow
settling known as precautionary salting;

removing snow and ice, or reducing the risk from snow and ice, in a
hierarchical order from roads, footways and cycleways, usually by
further salting, ploughing or spreading grit;

encouraging ‘self-help’ so that individuals and communities clear
local snow and ice that affects them.
Clearly the precautionary salting routes are the highest priority and receive
the greatest amount of both precautionary treatment and treatment after
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significant snow has fallen or ice formed (known as ‘post’ treatment,
clearance of snow and ice from carriageways and footways).
9.5
Hertfordshire currently salts 42% of the highway network as a precaution,
compared to the national average of around 35%. A further 644Km (13%)
of highway is on the County Council’s post treatment routes. Although post
salting routes are less than a third of the quantity of precautionary routes
they cost as much to treat as they require more resource, smaller vehicles,
double operatives and some hand treatment.
9.6
The Council’s WSOP has been tested in court over various insurance
claims and has been found to be robust in is hierarchical approach. It does
not currently provide for any specific priority for salting routes to schools.
9.7
Many routes to schools are already part of the precautionary salting
network because of other factors such as the classification of the road or
it’s being on a bus route.
9.8
All Hertfordshire County Council’s schools have been considered in the
preparation of this report but the primary focus has been to identify and
provide options for a winter service to those schools that currently do not
have at least one entrance close to an existing precautionary or post
salting route. The definition of close to has been taken as either within
50m by road or 10m by footway/footpath.
9.9
Equal level of importance has been given to all schools including First,
Secondary, Junior, Middle, Upper, Primary, Special, and Nursery, Free
and Maintained schools together with Educational Support Centres across
Hertfordshire. Other education establishments such as private tutors, night
class centres, music centres, sports centres etc. have not been
considered.
9.10 Of the 525 schools in Hertfordshire, 191 are considered to be in scope for
possible further support as they are situated away (more than 50m by
road, or 10m by footway) from a precautionary or post salting route.
9-.11 Suggested options for further support that could be considered include;
Option 1 Extend the precautionary or post salting routes up to at least one
entrance of every school in Hertfordshire. This would require significantly
more equipment and salt to be available and potentially additional salt
storage to be found. Assuming no additional salt storage, the cost of this
option would be approximately £750,000 based on an average winter.
Option 2 Provide targeted treatment to the worst affected schools during
periods of severe winter weather. This would require significant officer
time, more equipment and resources to be available. This option would
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cost approximately £630,000 per annum, based on similar conditions to
those in 2012/13, where there were 2 severe weather events over a period
of 13 days.
Option 3 Provide those schools not on the current salting network with
access to free salt to allow them to treat their own highway access routes
as a form of self-help. This requires extension to the existing salt bag
scheme, with additional highways administration cost, and self-help
support from the schools. The cost of this option is approximately
£100,000 per annum.
Option 4 Work with schools to develop their own winter service plans to
operate during severe winter weather. This would demonstrate a degree
of self-sufficiency with minimal additional cost to the highways winter
budget. This option could range from the production of a simple template
for schools to develop into their own WSOP, through to full staff
engagement with each school to support them in developing a WSOP.
Resource costs could be between £5,000 and £90,000.
Option 5 Do nothing, consider the provision within the existing WSOP and
hierarchies of treatment as adequate. However, this doesn’t demonstrate
any improvement for schools. The cost of this option would be £0.
9.12 Regardless of the highway being salted, schools often close for other
reasons during severe winter weather, including:
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No heating, commonly boiler failure;
Risks from ice and snow on the school paths;
No deliveries, milk, ingredients for dinners etc.;
Government/Police advise not to travel unless absolutely
necessary.
9.13 The decision to close is made locally by the head teacher, and is posted
on the County Council’s website for the local community to access. Using
the severe weather of January 2013 as an example, the Council’s website
showed:
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Friday 18 January 2013, 80+ schools closed by midday;
Monday 21 January 2013, 353 schools and additional education
establishments closed;
Tuesday 22 January 2013, 315 schools and additional
establishments closed.
9.14 Historical records of which school closed and for what reasons have not
been robust, so it is not possible to determine if treating the highway up to
the school gates would have resulted in the school remaining open.
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9.15 Members are requested to consider which option is preferred, taking into
account the impact on budget requirements, as this would be a growth
item.
9.16 As the full picture around reasons why schools close during severe
weather is unclear, it is not possible to say with any certainty that treating
the network up to the school entrance will have the desired impact. It may
therefore be more appropriate to work closely with the schools during the
2014/15 season to enhance the service’s understanding on why schools
close in order to develop a more targeted approach.
9.17 The officer recommendation is to pursue option 3 and engage with those
schools which aren’t close to a precautionary or post salting route and
make them aware of the option of providing salt for their use.
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Developments, innovations and efficiencies for future winters
10.1 During the summer months the WSOP is reviewed to build in new
developments, legislative changes, innovations and efficiencies. Those
which might be of benefit to Hertfordshire are presented to Members as
part of the annual report on WSOP to the Panel before the
commencement of the coming winter season.
10.2
For information, upcoming developments and improvements for
2015/2016 include:
10.2.1
Use of new ceramic snow blades on snow ploughs which
are more effective at removing snow. This trial is at no
additional cost to the winter service.
10.2.2
Improved treatment of cycleways. The current policy is to
pre-treat “urban cycle ways open to mopeds where they are
accessible to vehicle mounted or towed spreaders”. New
approaches now allow for smaller vehicles and treatment
types which could be more effective on cycleways. During
the 2014/2015 winter season a trial of liquid spreaders will
be carried out to determine the cost effectiveness. This may
lead to cost savings or treatments of a greater area without
cost increases.
10.2.3
Working with Transport Access and Safety to consider the
impact of potential bus service changes and its effect on the
winter gritting network and reviewing the criteria for which
bus routes are the most import to create a new hierarchy. If
some bus routes are removed then this may mean the road
is no longer pre -treated. Revised criteria might look like;
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Scheduled Bus Routes with a frequency of 4 or more bus
services a day in both directions for at least 5 days per
week.
10.2.4
Review the reduced network (high priority network for
treatment during periods of national salt shortage) for use in
the most extreme situations. Continuing to ensure that
resources are directed to the areas that benefit most and
ensuring through Equalities Impact Assessment that no
groups are disadvantaged. Any review of the salting routes
will include an opportunity for Members to see coverage in
their area and will be communicated in an agreed approach.
10.2.5
Consideration to increasing the precautionary treatment time
for roads in advance of a predicted frost, or allowing the
highways contractor more flexibility of what time roads are
treated in advance of forecast ice or snow. This may reduce
cost, but needs to be considered alongside best practice and
could have possible insurance consequences in any later
claims.
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Financial implications
11.1
See preceding paragraphs. The winter service budget for 2014/2015 is
£3.138 million. This is based on an average spend of five previous winter
seasons allowing for the annual retail price increase
Summary of Appendices
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
Appendix 1 – Winter self-help documentation
Appendix 2 – Winter Service Operational Plan 2014/2015
Background Information
Report to and Minutes of the Highways & Waste Management Cabinet Panel,
September 2013.
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