Councils praised for improved roadworks communication

According to Socitm’s Find out about roadworks, 2016-17 report, local authorities have improved their performance scorecard for online roadworks communication by 37 per cent.

Best practice was highlighted in North Yorkshire, Northamptonshire, Devon and Hertfordshire county councils, where the additional information provided on closures and diversions was particularly commended. All these authorities used the Elgin Traffic Management App to plot their official closures and diversions and syndicate the information through hundreds of other web services, social media and informing sat-nav and in-car navigation services.

The Socitm report noted: “Almost all of the councils surveyed use the roadworks.org mapping system as the primary or only route to access details of planned roadworks in the area.”

"The last time we conducted this test was in 2014, when only 48 per cent of county councils achieved the Better Connected standard – the equivalent of three or four stars under our current scoring arrangements.

"This time we have 85 per cent getting three and four stars, 55 per cent achieving the top mark. The difference is that most sites now embed the roadworks.org map and facilities into their websites to provide the information covered by this test, and individual and overall results are greatly influenced by how well this service has been integrated into the website." 

Shane O'Neill, chairman of Elgin, the home of roadworks.org said: "The use by over 95 per cent of Local Highway Authorities of roadworks.org is one of the best examples of local government shared services that exists. Over 17 million self-served* roadworks enquiries were answered in the last twelve months through roadworks.org and its network of embedded sites. This is a fantastic collective response by councils in these challenging times - shared services and self-served enquiries in action and all achieved at minimal cost."