10 years of Street Lighting Maintenance for Suffolk County Council delivered by leading UK Street Lighting contractor, McCann

Improving efficiencies

Our commitment to exploring and trialling new innovations has greatly benefited Suffolk County Council during the delivery of the Term Maintenance Contract. This has included:

• Application of radar adaptive lighting with lights dimming and brightening in accordance with traffic flows, delivering a 40% energy saving.
• Trialling a ‘world first’ camera adaptive pilot to assess whether we can provide different lighting levels depending on road user (e.g. full brightness when pedestrians are present and dimmed when it is only vehicles).
• New Stock Management App supports unforeseen late planning of works where designs and orders can be carried out with stock held to ensure prompt completion of urgent works.
• New GIS map-based public-facing system used for illustrating where and when works will be undertaken. This system assists councillors with enquiries from the public regarding ongoing works, acts as a tool to inform residents at stakeholder meetings and has significantly reduced general enquiries levels, reducing demand on our staff.
• Custom-built maintenance faults daily dashboard used for tracking, and allocating faults to crews, reducing outstanding fault levels and repeat faults, improving customer satisfaction and reducing complaints.

Nighttime scouting for non-CMS assets

Across the contract, we have identified that there are approximately 13,479 assets that are not currently on the Central Management System (CMS) and around 85,000 assets overall. Our approach across the contract is to scout all assets across a set programme of works. Following our detailed forward programme, we can effectively scout 1,000 to 1500 illuminated assets, bollards and third-party lights per night, and this output will be utilised to both optimise the routes for minimal miles driven and ensure that we maintain complete coverage of the area. Our night scout fleet comprises fully electric vans, meaning we can effectively scout assets whilst producing zero emissions.

For any units not on the CMS system (illuminated signs/bollards or units owned by third parties), we ensure that these are scouted at a frequency of two calendar months for each illuminated and maintained asset. We also implement a ‘find and fix’ regime to scout any repairs needed for faults not identified on the CMS, implementing a programme to get all country assets connected to the CMS throughout the duration of the contract.

Strategic delivery

Throughout the contract, we are using strategically located depots across the county to facilitate effective service delivery. We have supply chain agreements in place with major material suppliers that permit us to hold stock at these depots, enabling us to undertake works without having long lead-in times for materials, allowing us to respond quickly and efficiently to emergencies. Each depot also contains materials to cover any potential third-party works or cross-parish border works that we may potentially need to service.

To strategically maximise the traffic management and minimise the disruption, where possible, road space is shared with other suppliers and utilities. Our Contract Delivery Team also work outside of normal hours (including weekends) and identifies assets requiring completion and any in the immediate vicinity that can be replaced using the same traffic management plan. Leaning on the full scope of McCann offering, our team can carry out column replacements in a single visit due to our ICP (Independent Connection Provider) accreditation. This means we don’t have to return later to remove the existing unit, minimising the impact of our works on the local community.

Where possible, all disruptions are communicated in advance utilising the council’s website, social media and advance notices. All communications contain completion dates and detail potential diversionary routes, helping stakeholders to plan alternative routes well in advance.

Engaging the public and local authority

McCann attends monthly ‘Councillor Drop-In’ sessions with Suffolk County Council (SCC) to meet councillors and discuss contract delivery. Our Contract Manager leads regular contact and service delivery updates, including the dedicated stakeholder key performance indicators (KPIs), on behalf of SCC to all key, relevant local authorities and third parties.

As well as engaging with the local authorities, our team provide key touch points for  residents. During on-site delivery, information boards are provided on-site. These contain a QR code for the public to comment on works, site cleanliness and workforce conduct. Our team have a presence during key local events, such as The Suffolk Show, to showcase their work, the vehicles used, and materials to the local community, providing them an opportunity to ask questions about the service we provide.

Giving back to the community

As part of the contract, we have committed to delivering several social value activities to give back to the communities in which we work. A handful of our initiatives include

• Over 64 volunteer hours working with local schools on STEM topics.
• Employing five local apprentices.
• Supported the provision of bleed kits.
• Donated financial contributions to local projects.
• Established projects to plant flower beds and wild seeds.
• Employed ex-service personnel on the contract.
• Supported local schools through Outdoor Play and Learning (OPAL) initiatives
• Active involvement in the local environment through our work with Suffolk Wildlife Trust
• Offered first aid training to over 200 local young people during The Suffolk Show

McCann’s work on the Suffolk County Council Street Lighting Maintenance contract is a testament to our team’s expertise and credentials built through decades of experience working for local authorities across the country, including North and North East Lincolnshire, North Yorkshire Council, Durham County Council, Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council and the London Borough of Hillingdon.  We are proud to support Suffolk County Council and their 62,000 assets with emergency response, infrastructure improvements and fault repairs for years to come.