Many local councils across Staffordshire and the country are exercising their legal powers to carry out a number of small highways amenities and rights of way tasks, and are making a big difference to local people.
Staffordshire County Council think there’s a range of ways that you could go about it from ‘doing nothing’ to raising funds to help pay for a range of tasks.
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It costs too much, and takes too long and just something else that you need to do. Right?
Although time and budgets are of course limited for all local councils, there are activities that can be undertaken with the minimum of time and expenditure. You may even be able to collaborate with other local councils to reduce the time and cost commitment. Most importantly you’re in a great position to get the community involved.
The changing role of the county council
The statutory responsibilities of the county council
Help to recruit and manage volunteers and inspire your community
Case studies of local councils who are self-helping
Contact the county council to talk about your ideas
Local councils across Staffordshire and the country are organising ad-hoc work parties of local people or more regular volunteer schemes to manage an array of small highways maintenance tasks.
Volunteers can safely carry out a range of highways tasks and are making a huge difference in communities across Staffordshire.
Volunteering is on the up with almost 14% of people saying that they’d volunteered to help their friends and neighbours in the last week. Find out more about volunteering across Staffordshire.
There are many ‘Community Organisers’ across Staffordshire who can help you to bring the community together, and the county council’s ‘S3’ voluntary sector partners can give you all the advice you need regards volunteering.
Help to recruit and manage volunteers
Contact our voluntary sector partners for volunteering advice
Link to more useful documents, including method statements, risk assessments, etc
If managing volunteers isn’t right for your council, you could consider using your precept to commission an independent contractor.
Whilst the county council is really keen to help find solutions, it’s unlikely that a single council will find commissioning its provider, Amey, cost effective. Local councils will need to collaborate to directly commission the county council’s contractor, Amey, for a year to carry out the work (please see Option 4).
But commissioning your own contractor can be much simpler than you think. Although the county council can’t legally recommend a contractor, it can advise you on the criteria that you should expect from a contractor. The council will also review your quotes to advise on if the quote covers all the necessary aspects of work.
Help to choose a contractor
Contact us
More useful documents
This is a really effective and value for money way of maintaining small highways amenities .
New research conducted by the National Association for Local Councils (NALC) has recently illustrated that parish and local town councils – often with less than 6,000 electors – are collaborating to manage small highways amenities tasks.
There are ways that local councils can manage small highways amenities and rights of way without using or increasing their precept.
By setting up a social enterprise or a Community Interest Company (CIC), you could generate more income than you do from traditional donations or ‘giving’. Social enterprises have a number of different forms, depending on the work being undertaken.
There are hundreds of social enterprises or CICs in Staffordshire – for a variety of causes, from social care to children’s activities. For support on Social Enterprises, please book an appointment with a Support Staffordshire locality officer on 0300 777 1207.
Local councils around Staffordshire are also funding local highways amenities and rights of way through commercial sponsorship.