13 Aug 2025: traffic management for council works team

Media: Local Democracy Reporter

Topic: Outsourcing of traffic management for works team

Enquiry

I am looking to follow up on something mentioned in last week’s Council Infrastructure & Environment Committee meeting.

It regards ongoing Union action from Works staff regarding traffic management. From the meeting I got the understanding that works staff were no longer doing their own traffic management due to Union direction?

I just have some follow up questions on that for clarification and comment if that’s ok?

• Can you confirm the nature of the union action including - who is taking union action? When did union action begin? What reasons were given for union action?
• Is Council working with the union on a solution to the issues raised?
• In the meeting it was suggested the reasoning was health and safety related? Is this accurate?
• Have there been any recorded near misses that precipitated this union action?
• What is the current solution, of outsourced Site Traffic Management Supervisors STMS, costing Council?
• Has training been sufficient for Council staff to perform their own STMS duties prior to this union action?

That’s all the questions I have for now.

Response

From Group Manager – Community Experience, Alex Wilson:

To clarify one thing, there has been no union “action” – there have been discussions with the union, which are ongoing, and for some work, we are outsourcing site traffic management.

There have been no reported accidents. However, there were 37 near-miss incidents from 1 November 2024 to 12 August 2025:

• 30 – Vehicle struck a cone
• 1 – Cyclist struck a cone
• 1 – Contractor hit a sign with a vehicle
• 3 – Vehicle-to-vehicle collisions due to driver inattention
• 1 – Vehicle breakdown interrupting traffic flow
• 1 – Vehicle driving on the wrong side of the road.

As we are still in negotiations with the union, it would not be appropriate to comment further at this time.