REVIEW OF RIS Appendix 1
Argyll and Bute Council · 19 June 2025
Back to Environment, Development and Infrastructure Committee — 19 June 2025 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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Classification: OFFICIAL# Priority Improvement Action Rationale and Detail Progress Current Position 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 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 This action is taking place in 2 phases. The first phase relates to the third-tier management structure. Formal engagement has taken place with Trade Unions and affected staff and following detailed and considered feedback from Third Tier Managers on the new structure, work is ongoing to review proposals in light of this feedback. Phase 2 relates to tier 4 and below. Further information will be provided in this regard once the review of proposals, as a result of the feedback from Third Tier Managers, has been concluded. Waste Post PPP Arrangements: Drive forward the selection and development, by the Council, of the organisational arrangements to come into place for waste disposal at the end of the current PPP contract. 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 consultancies. As the future arrangements become clearer the capacity of the Council’s waste team will be further reviewed. In Progress External consultants continue to progress Options Appraisal for future organisational arrangements. A number of existing commercial and contractual matters in relation to the PPP contract are being progressed along with matters that relate to the impact on Municipal Bio-degradable Waste to Landfill. Organisational Design and People Roads and Infrastructure Service Review - Priority Workstreams Appendix 1
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Classification: OFFICIAL# 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 progressing well to align RIS projects with the Council’s Project Pipeline. The RIS Management Team are working with the Corporate Programme Co- ordinator to conclude this action. Respond to Reduced Roads Asset Maintenance Budget: Review the impact of the reduction in roads maintenance capital budget on the overall staffug structure - with particular emphasis on the impact o front-line operational staffing (due to existing approach to capital recharging of a proportion of operative staff time). 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 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. Timeframe to be aligned with timetable for wider Council Savings and Budgets options process An initial high-level review has been undertaken outlining the types of both capital and revenue works that would be prioritised under different funding scenarios – this work will be further progressed over the coming year.
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Classification: OFFICIAL# Helensburgh Waste Transfer Station (WTS) Project to be 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 Infrastruture 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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Priority Improvement Action Rationale and Detail Progress Current Position 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 ir 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 Work in respect of the 3 key areas of improvement (Finance module; Environmental Land Management (ELM) module and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) module) has been progressed with each project lead having completed a project brief for their element. As the current Finance module becomes unsupported in March 2026, priority has been given to this element of the system to ensure that a replacement is in place prior to this date. Roads and Infrastructure Service Review - Priority Workstreams Data, Digital and Customer
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Priority Improvement Action Rationale and Detail Progress Current Position Commence programme 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 co-ordinated package of service changes. TBC - Cannot be progressed until Reshape has been concluded This action cannot be progressed until the Organisational Reshape action has been concluded. Develop and implement a package of changes to school transport including ASN transport. This is a policy area that, nationally, has been under 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 people with ASN. In progress Work is taking place to progress quarterly meetings with colleagues in Education to better understand current and future ASN needs and to create a formalised process that allows for consideration of transport needs against ASN requirements. Continue to progress route optimisation project. This project is fundamental to having improved customer service and performance metrics to drive efficiency in the waste collection service. In progress Staff training and familiarisation with the technology has now been concluded and the installation of the in-cab technology is all but complete, with the only vehicle located out on Tiree remaining to be fitted. The first pilot area began trials in May 2025 with wider roll out expected to take place before the end of June 2025. This Priority Improvement Action is the subject of another report on today's agenda. Roads and Infrastructure Service Review - Priority Workstreams Policy and Procedure
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Continue to progress the second domestic waste bin review and seek to reduce residual waste collection in line with the volume recommended in the Code of Practice for Household Recycling in Scotland of 80L per week for households with kerbside access and 70L per week for flats with a communal service. To reduce waste disposal volumes and increase recycling and re-use, thereby supporting achievement of environmental strategies and targets and reducing revenue cost of waste disposal and waste collection services. This work, alongside the route optimisation project will be driven forward with increased pace to deliver improvements in both efficiency and customer service. In progress The consultation on the second green bin collections ended on 15 May 2025, responses are currently being reviewed and collated. This Priority Improvement Action is the subject of another report on today's agenda.
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Priority Improvement Action Rationale and Detail Progress Current Position 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. 02/06/2025 Work to progress an initial productivity survey, amongst other works to begin week commencing 2nd June 2025. Roads and Infrastructure Services Review - Priority Workstreams Commercial Opportunities
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Progress the initial review of commercial waste income to ensure that all in receipt of commercial waste servcies are being charged for the service of which they are in receipt. A review of back office and operational proceudres will be implemented to provide assurance that this are of service is operating to optimum levels. In progress Initial work has begun on this action with the introduction of stickers for grey commercial waste bins. The go live date for this project was 1st May 2025 and since then a number of new contracts have been implemented, the team progressing this action are still receiving a large volume of enquiries as the process beds in. Further work is underway to define and implement a process to set up commercial waste contracts for properties who do not currently have a commercial waste contract but are operating as self-catering properties or small businesses. The financial outcome of both of these projects will not be known until later in the year.