Road repair inspectors sought by Cheshire East

Quality assurance officers are being recruited to inspect work carried out on the borough’s roads.

I would have thought that it would be more cost-effective to instruct an independent surveyor to assess the quality of road repairs.

Let’s be honest, given that road repairs are few and far between – having full time staff plus admin support plus arranging holiday cover must cost more.

But in their wisdom, Cheshire East are recruiting quality assurance officers – “to inspect work carried out on the borough’s roads as part of the council’s commitment to ensuring value for money.”

“This will help the authority drive up the quality of highways repairs and ensure value for money in the work done. “

Cheshire East’s recently approved new budget, includes a whopping £19m for planned highways maintenance over the next three years.

However, they say this “is set against the backdrop of a £3m cut in government funding for highways maintenance in 2020/21, and a freeze in government funding for the next three years.”

There’s no doubt that highways maintenance has been way below the level required and some roads are in an appalling condition.

But spending what may turn out to be an unjustified element of their budget on more staff does appear to be false economy.

Councillor Craig Browne, chair of the council’s highways and transport committee, said: “The vast majority of our residents understand that budgets are tight. However, they are also frustrated when they see the deterioration in the condition of the highway.

“I am pleased that this investment in quality assurance will go some way towards addressing that. The council has the in-house skills to work with our contractor to ensure we improve performance, deliver high-quality work and demonstrate we are a council that listens to residents’ concerns and acts on them.” 

Councillor Laura Crane, vice-chair of the council’s highways and transport committee, said: “Whilst the level of funding provided by central government is simply inadequate to meet the maintenance needs of Cheshire East’s roads and prevent them deteriorating further, we are increasing that level of investment by £19m over the next three years. 

“This additional investment is having to be funded by borrowing, which although necessary in the short term, isn’t a sustainable position in the long term.

“The only real positive from this settlement is that we at least have funding certainty for the next three years so can better plan ahead, looking at how we can use the financial surety to generate even greater value for money. 

“But the frozen level of government funding does not take into account inflation, which is running year on year at a 30-year high – so we are looking in real-terms at a cut in government funding each year.”

In addition to the additional investment in the road repairs programme this year, the council is also planning to increase spending on highways inspections, responding to emergencies, hedge/tree maintenance and managing flood risk, including gully emptying.

Councillor Browne added: “We are a large semi-rural authority with a complex and extensive highways network. Assessment by our strategic highways team shows that we need to invest close to £30m each year to keep the roads in their current state and this level of funding has not been achieved for many years. 

“This means that we are now facing a backlog of repair works totalling well over £100m, which remains unfunded.”

The council is to initially recruit one quality assurance officer – quite how he/she will be kept busy every day of the year remains to be seen. And, no doubt, within twelve months there’ll be a whole department set up to manage the inspectors.

We’re also informed that the council’s Head of Highways also has a newly-expanded quality assurance role – so you may see them both out checking the tarmac.