Appendix 1 RIS Review Priority Improvement Actions Update 19.08.2026
Argyll and Bute Council · 11 September 2025
Back to Environment, Development and Infrastructure Committee — 11 September 2025 and its agenda
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Appendix 1 Roads and Infrastructure Service Review – Priority Workstream Update Organisational Design and People Priority Improvement Action Rationale and Detail Status Progress Update Organisational Reshape: Develop and implement a revised organisation structure for RIS This action will deliver Stage 3 of the RIS Review process and is fundamental to enabling the success of all other improvement related activities and will form the foundations for a refreshed Roads and Infrastructure Service. The existing organisation structure does not provide optimal levels of clarity and accountability and in some areas, it appears to lack the capacity required to effectively respond to near-term challenges. The need for change to the Management structure is not universal with some teams requiring only limited change. In progress Phase 1: On course to be complete during September 2026. Phase 2: Draft organisation structure has been completed ready for finalisation in draft once tier 3 managers are appointed to enable engagement with the affected staff. Waste Post PPP Arrangements: Drive forward the section and development, by the Council, of the organisational arrangements to come into place for waste disposal at the With the current PPP contract expiring in September 2026, a key area of focus is to increase the pace at which the organisational arrangements that will be required after the end of the contract are developed and put into operation. In the short-term additional capacity is being added to the Council’s existing waste team through external specialist consultants. As the future arrangements become clearer the In Progress There has been a high level of activity over the last 3 months and this is summarised below: • Conversion of the MBT plants: Deed of Variation signed 07.08.25. BIFFA have awarded contracts with the contractors to undertake the MBT conversion works with mobilisation now commenced. This work is on track to ensure bio-ban compliance by January 2026.
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end of the current PPP contract. capacity of the Council’s waste team will be further reviewed. • Historic CLO: BIFFA have reached commercial agreement with an off taker. Providing required level of assurance on the content of the material to the regulator (SEPA) is required to finally conclude this matter. • Procurement programme progressing well for formal tender to commence in September leading to contract award in January 2026. • Work has started to develop the specification of works required for capping and closure of the existing landfill sites both within and out with the PPP area. Infrastructure Capital Programme Management: Improve consistency of approach to project management. While there is a strong emphasis on managing the design and construction phases of projects, the process of business case development and assurance within RIS can be improved and strengthened and brought into better alignment with the Council wide approach of the Project Pipeline and adoption of best practice through the Treasury Green Book business case approach. In Progress Work is ongoing to align project management within RIS with the corporate Project Pipeline Approach. As new projects are coming through these are adopting the refreshed corporate approach e.g. A816 Ardfern project being considered by Committee at this meeting. Respond to Reduced Roads Asset Maintenance Budget: Review the impact of the reduction in roads maintenance capital This action was initially developed in response to the anticipated significant reduction in the level of capital funding for 2025/26. The decision at Council to award a capital budget of £10m for roads reconstruction in 2025/26 has reduced the urgency of this action. However, with ongoing pressure to Council budgets and no guarantee Timeframe to be aligned with timetable for wider Council Savings and This is not being progressed at the current time until a clearer indication of likely future capital maintenance budget is available.
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budget on the overall staffing structure - with particular emphasis on the impact of front-line operational staffing (due to existing approach to capital recharging of a proportion of operative staff time). that the current level of capital funding can be maintained in future years, it remains necessary for the service to review how a potential future reduction in the capital budget would impact on the current operating model and balance between activities delivered by in-house resource and those delivered by contractors. Budgets options process Helensburgh Waste Transfer Station (WTS) Project: subject to project gateway review to re- baseline the benefits in the context of whether it can offer opportunities to increase efficiency in waste collection and resilience in waste disposal of sufficient magnitude to justify the required capital investment. The proposed Helensburgh WTS is no longer required to ensure the Council has a bio-ban compliant disposal solution in this area. The project does however offer benefits in terms of resilience of waste disposal by enabling the Council to bulk waste and therefore being at less risk if it has to take waste further than at present for disposal. Construction of the WTS may also enable revised and lower cost shift patterns to be adopted by the waste collection teams. However it is not clear that these efficiency and resilience gains are sufficient to justify £3.6m of capital investment. Complete Following agreement of the Environment, Development and Infrastructure Committee on 20th March 2025 that officers should not progress further with the development and delivery of the Helensburgh WTS and the subsequent agreement of the Policy & Resources Committee on 8th May 2025 that the remainder of the £3m of budget earmarked for this project could be retained for other funding related pressures within the Waste Service, this Priority Improvement Action has now been concluded.
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Roads and Infrastructure Service Review – Priority Improvement Workstream Data, Digital and Customer Priority Improvement Action Rationale and Detail Status Progress Update RIAMS Improvement: Establish cross service project team with involvement from corporate, digital and finance to fundamentally review WDM and Total systems to determine and drive forward a plan to either re- configure it replace both (recognising existing Total product must be replaced due to product soon to become unsupported). Stage 1 and 2 of the review process identified that the core asset and information management system used by the service in relation to roads, amenities and environmental assets is not optimally configured and is not offering the maximum value possible. This system also interacts with a service specific finance system which is coming to its end of life and with the corporate customer relationship management system. This Priority Improvement Action will see these systems reviewed with targeted improvements made to maximise benefit and ensure a replacement for the finance element is in place prior to the expiry of the existing product. This work will include reviewing the opportunities for artificial intelligence to add greater value and enable staff to spend a greater proportion of their time on higher value-added activities. In Progress Finance Module: As set out in the June update the highest priority of this project has been to secure the replacement of an existing tool that is essential to the process of budgeting for road maintenance works, with the existing tool becoming unsupported in March next year. An alternative product has been sourced, and work has now commenced to undertake the necessary development to ensure this is available and functioning by March 2026. The key outcomes of this work will be improved back-office efficiency, implementation of the digital systems needed for future service improvements, sustainability of the existing systems and improvements in customer service. CRM: Work has been underway on making some improvements to WDM aimed at enhancing the customer experience and improving efficiencies for our inspectors. A key improvement is that faults can no longer be
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logged on non-adopted roads and trunk roads as of Monday 7th July. ELM: This work has progressed at the pace anticipated due to staff prioritising other activities. A review of the plan for this work will be undertaken shortly.
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Roads and Infrastructure Service Review – Priority Workstreams Policy and Procedure Priority Improvement Action Rationale and Detail Status Progress Update Commence program of strategic change to parking and enforcement related activity. A strategic review of parking services and options for change should be developed for consideration by Members as a coordinated package of service changes. Not yet commenced Resource availability and other parking related priorities such as pavement parking ban and events TTRO review has meant that progress has not begun with priority action. Implement a Package of changes to school transport including ASN transport. Significant financial strain for a number of years as a result of increases in demand. A package of changes will be developed including: • Reviewing the approach to procurement in targeted areas. • Strengthening co-ordination between council services in Education and RIS in relation to planning for the transport requirements of children and young with ASN. In Progress Work has begun to improve the co-ordination of decision making and information sharing between education officer and the RIS transportation team. A key staff resource gap within RIS has held up progress in this area. Household Residual Waste Collection Reduction This project has been triggered as part of the RIS Review. This project brings together two existing related but separate projects into a single project. In doing so this project subsumes its predecessors and provides a greater level of aspiration for the outcomes and benefits of the project. The existing projects replaced by this project are: In Progress A report is being considered by EDI committee today setting out progress and recommendations in relation to this priority improvement action. The report includes: • A new second domestic waste bin policy, • A new assisted bin uplift policy,
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1)Second Domestic Bin Review 2)Waste Service Route Optimisation Project • A review and re-positioning of the route optimisation project, • Requests members endorse a programme to require and enforce mandatory identification of household bins.
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Roads and Infrastructure Services Review – Priority Workstreams Commercial Opportunities Priority Improvement Action Rationale and Detail Status Progress Update Further review the options for increased commercial activity in the fleet maintenance workshops. Stage 1 of the review reached conclusions in relation to the potential to generate additional income through fleet services. The Stage 2 due diligence did not fully support the conclusion as they did not take account of the local context of Argyll and Bute including our highly rural nature, topography and long distances between vehicle operating centres (depots). However, opportunities are believed to exist to further review medium to long term options to increase efficiency and / or generate additional commercial income. A further and more detailed review of capacity that involves looking at both existing capacity available for commercial work will be progressed. Not yet commenced Resourcing challenges within the fleet and transport team have resulted in challenges in progressing this workstream. Progress the initial review of commercial waste income to ensure that all commercial waste services are charged for the service of The initial work suggests a very significant amount of income is not being collected. The data also suggests significant disparities with some businesses paying appropriately while others are not and are in effect in receipt of a service free of charge. In Progress This has been another significant area of activity over the last 3-months. In June the first of two projects intended to ensure the Council recovers all legitimate income from the collection of commercial waste was just beginning. That project has now led to additional contracts being entered into resulting in a projected increase in income of
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which they are in receipt. over £270k. Since then, a second project has been mobilised which involves contacting all properties across Argyll and Bute paying non- domestic rates to determine if they require a contract for commercial waste. This is a significant task which due to resource constraints is being progressed on a progressive basis i.e. not all properties can be contacted at the same time. To date indications, suggest an increase in income of over £500k should be anticipated in the current financial year. Over the next period further work will be undertaken, as a priority, to assess further activities that might further improve the Councils financial return on this commercial service. The key outcomes of this work are to increase the income of the Council, thereby contributing to financial sustainability in the long term and to ensure that all customers receive an equitable service.