Shropshire’s highways maintenance contractor up for discussion
A performance report on Shropshire’s highways maintenance contractor will be discussed behind closed doors next week.
The document, titled “Kier Annual Report – Further Update” will be presented to the council’s Place Overview Committee with the press and public excluded.
Agenda documents says the report and discussion are restricted because they contain “information in respect of which a claim to legal privilege could be maintained in legal proceedings”.
The committee was due to receive and discuss the update in open session on two weeks ago, but that meeting was postponed the evening before it was due to take place.
Kier Group’s original annual 2018-19 report was presented to the committee in November. In it, the company missed its 95 per cent performance target in five out of 11 areas, with two “amber” and three “red ratings”.
The actual overall key performance indicator score for the year was 93.5 per cent. In six areas, Kier surpassed 95 per cent, earning a “green” rating.
“Highways programmed works completed as programmed” and “fly-tipping incidents cleared” dropped below that, receiving “amber”.
Three areas, under 90 per cent, received “red”: street lighting repairs, street lighting works commenced and highway repairs.
The last of those, a note in the report said, received an 87.6 per cent score, which was “adjusted for initial backlog and severe winter previous”.
The report said: “Early spring of 2018 was extremely challenging. The ‘Beast from the East’ caused major disruption, routine works were affected, and a backlog of work was generated due to the inability to undertake inspections and routine maintenance during the period of the weather event.”
At a meeting last month, Shropshire Council’s then-Chief Executive Clive Wright acknowledged widespread dissatisfaction from the area’s parish councils with how the contractor reacted to reports of potholes and other maintenance issues. He said the authority would monitor Kier’s work closely and use smaller, local contractors instead in some cases.
The Place Overview Committee will meet on Friday, March 6.
An annual report on WSP, the council’s engineering consultant, will also be discussed.
Non-members will be allowed to attend that section of the meeting, but a clause in the 1972 Local Government Act will be invoked to dismiss the press and the public before the Kier report.
