Traffic management

25 May 2022

Your request & our response

  1. Please send some example (i) schedules of rates and (ii) frameworks that include traffic management / temporary traffic light products / services
    1. How long are these frameworks set for?
    2. How frequently are schedules of rates for these products / services updated?

Our Highways term maintenance contract with Ringway Infrastructure Services Limited includes for the provision of traffic management / temporary traffic light products / services where we require them. This is a call-off contract pursuant to the Transport for London Highway Maintenance and Projects Framework.

Our term maintenance contract is for eight years, from 2021, with an option to extend by a further four years.

The schedules of rates associated with this contract are updated every 12 months, with changes effective from 1st April

I can confirm that we have reviewed your request for the relevant schedules of rates as this is commercially sensitive information therefore we are unable to provide it. 

We therefore engage Regulation 12(5e) to this part of this request.

Regulation 12 (5)(e) Confidentiality of commercial or industrial information

12.—(5) For the purposes of paragraph (1)(a), a public authority may refuse to disclose information to the extent that its disclosure would adversely affect— 

(e) the confidentiality of commercial or industrial information where such confidentiality is provided by law to protect a legitimate economic interest

Disclosure of this information would be detrimental to the Council as our agreements are made on the basis of confidentiality and will include information which if disclosed could impact negatively on the ability to effectively operate.

The market environment within which Lambeth Council operates is competitive. If we disclose the schedule of rates, there is the risk of jeopardy to the Council’s ability to participate competitively in this commercial environment. In addition, the companies we work with are likely to choose not to work with us as a result of the publication of this information. This is because the disclosure would reveal how they operate and hence prevent them from operating competitively in the market.

As this request relates to Environmental Information; we have also considered the public interest in disclosure/maintaining the exception.

Public Interest in Disclosure  

We note Regulation 12(2) EIR has a presumption of disclosure.

We also consider that disclosure would increase the public’s understanding of this issue and we note the general benefit in transparency where possible.  

Public Interest in maintaining the exception

The disclosure would discourage other companies from wanting to work with the Council and likely damage our relationship with these companies. Consequently, other boroughs will take advantage of this lost business.  

2. What are the criteria that councils use to evaluate traffic management providers against their frameworks? (e.g. quality – what comprises this? Environmental / H&S considerations?)

All evaluations are undertaken as part of the tender process when we are procuring a public realm contractor. No further information held.

3. Which KPIs does the council use to keep track of these objectives? (e.g. how is quality / price measured and compared)

This data is not held by Lambeth Council

  1. Within your organisation, what are the job titles with responsibility for:
    1. Design and specification of traffic management systems
    2. Procurement of traffic management systems / services
    3. Evaluation of traffic management provider performance

The job titles with involvement in a, b and c include (but are not limited to) Project Manager, Project Engineer, Highways Improvement Engineer, Engineering and Technical Manager.

  1. What proportion of roads are classified as traffic sensitive? Split by road type (A, B, C, etc.) if available.
    1. 2019-20
    2. 2020-21
    3. 2021-22

14.7% of Lambeth maintained roads are classed as Traffic sensitive. The road type split is as follows:

3a         3.9%

3b        5.4%

4a         5.4%

This has been the case from 2019 to 2022.

  1. For each of two-/three-/four-way temporary traffic lights, how many are installed in a year?
    1. 2019-20
    2. 2020-21
    3. 2021-22

This data is not held by Lambeth Council.

  1. What percentage of installed two-/three-/four-way temporary traffic lights use automated traffic detection systems for improving traffic flow (e.g. SRL’s Adaptive Detection System (ADS) / Pike’s AutoGreen)?
    1. 2019-20
    2. 2020-21
    3. 2021-22

This data is not held by Lambeth Council.

  1. What percentage of installed two-/three-/four-way temporary traffic lights use UTMC?
    1. 2019-20
    2. 2020-21
    3. 2021-22

This data is not held by Lambeth Council.