After two years of some very high profile and often controversial major road schemes. the borough council’s highways department has set out how it manages the bigger projects.

The communities and place oversight and scrutiny committee is due to discuss the report this week. It followed a motion at full council in July put forward by Jim Robbins for Labour and Dan Smith for the Conservative group on consulting affected residents beforehand and communicating what was going on once work started.

The report says: “For major highway works the council has an established process for consultation and communication. This usually consists of an initial round of informal consultation as projects are developed followed by further consultation as plans are finalised. The format of consultation depends upon the nature of the scheme – schemes that are taking place in close proximity to residents’ homes and local businesses will be different to those that are taking place on strategic roads with few residents or businesses in the vicinity.

“Consultation can take the form of press releases, letter drops, web pages on the council web site, online surveys and social media posts.

“Public drop-in sessions or meetings have been widely used – but were curtailed during Covid restrictions.”

It adds that as works actually begin, a web page on the council’s site is published, with frequently asked questions and answers.

“A specific project email address is widely circulated to make contact with the team managing the project – so that individual responses to queries can be provided.”


As well as social media posts and press releases the council produces specific email newsletters on major projects to update on progress

“It does need to be recognised that carrying out major works on the highway will inevitably cause some disruption and delay on the highway network and have an impact on local residents as a result. While this can be mitigated as much as possible it is unlikely that it can be avoided entirely. It does also depend upon residents engaging actively with the various information sources listed above – by visiting the website, attending information events and reading letter drops so that they can gain the benefit of the information that is being provided.”

The meeting begins at 6pm on Wednesday September 28 at the civic offices. It will also be webcast available via a link on the meeting’s agenda page at Swindon.gov.uk