Council to invest into improved local highways maintenance

Wiltshire Council is building on its very successful Parish Stewards scheme by investing £233,000 each year for the next three years into a new two-person team with improved equipment.

The money will be spent on a new two-person support team that will expand the service by helping the existing Parish Stewards with larger jobs that require heavier machinery and more than one person. The support team will be kitted out with a pick-up vehicle, a cage trailer, a mechanical weed ripper, a flail mower and power tools, and will travel throughout the county to help with larger jobs as required.

Currently there are 18 Parish Stewards, one for each community area, and they focus on delivering on the highways priorities of their local town or parish council. This includes jobs such as fixing minor road defects and filling potholes, to trimming bushes and hedges.

The new support team will be able to build on the success of the Parish Stewards, improving safety and the visual impact of local highways, and providing a better service for local town and parish councils.

Cllr Dr Mark McClelland, Cabinet Member for Transport, said: This investment will enable Parish Stewards to provide a better all-round service for our communities and to take on larger, more challenging jobs to improve the safety and look of our local highways networks.

In our business plan we have committed to having well-connected communities, and to working in partnership with town and parish councils, and the Parish Stewards scheme is an excellent example of meeting these two commitments.

The new support team will be in place from later this year, so people should see them working hard in their communities soon.

To find out more and read the full Cabinet paper, people should go to https://cms.wiltshire.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=141&MId=14360 (opens new window).