Led by East Ayrshire Council, the Ayrshire Roads Alliance is the first partnership of its kind in Scotland and has been established to deliver excellent shared Council roads and transportation services to communities across East and South Ayrshire. It delivers all elements of roads and transportation including roads maintenance, design and infrastructure, traffic and transportation and road safety, and will ensure resilience of service delivery into the future as budget constraints start to take hold.
It is expected that the establishment of this new operating model will realise savings in the region of £8.6 million over the next 10 years. As the 2016/17 Business Plan demonstrates, ARA remains on track to deliver this saving. £26 million has been allocated for road reconstruction and asset improvement work in East Ayrshire from 2015/16 to 2020/21.
Key Activities
The Ayrshire Roads Alliance is delivered with the overall objective of improving the road and transportation service in the East Ayrshire and South Ayrshire areas with an ultimate desire to move the Ayrshire Roads Alliance to a position that will have delivered at least £8.634million savings by 2024.
The ARA has 242 employees and is responsible for 2,385km of carriageway, 1,849km of footways, 34,446 streetlights, 150 traffic signals 885 Council owned bridges, 129 privately owned bridges, 24 sea defences and has 5 operational depots.
The Ayrshire Roads Alliance is governed by the Ayrshire Shared Service Joint Committee. The Joint Committee has responsibility for all shared Council services in Ayrshire.
Benefits and Impact
Specific improvements secured since the creation of the ARA, include:
- Increased capital investment £10 million by South Ayrshire Council over five years.
- Improved road conditions in both East and South Ayrshire Council.
- The development of a consolidated Winter Plan covering both Council areas.
- The implementation of a single Inspection Regime.
- The introduction of a unified training plan for all ARA employees.
Learning
Fleet requirements are being reduced over the duration of the Ayrshire Roads Alliance. This is the result of leaner processes, transformational changes to service delivery and regular performance reviews. Services regularly review the performance and utilisation of their fleet portfolio in partnership with Fleet Services in order to rationalise and improve the efficiency of the partnership between East Ayrshire Council and South Ayrshire Council’s fleet.
Further Information
To find out more about this case study, please contact:
Stewart Turner
Head of Ayrshire Roads Alliance
East Ayrshire Council
stewart.turner@east-ayrshire.gov.uk
01563 503164