Parish Stewards and their role in our communities

6 Aug

A Parish Steward is a special highway trained operative(s) provided by Wiltshire Council. Our team of Parish Stewards are specially trained to complete small-scale discretionary local highways priority works to town and parishes.

There are 18 Parish Stewards, one for each community area, who work with representatives in their parishes to ensure all work requests are clear and are logged for review before they start the work. We also have a support gang that works with the Parish Stewards on larger-scale projects, based on demand.

Each parish has a planned visit each month, with the programme set in advance over a three-month period.

Vehicles

Each Parish Steward has a 4x4 vehicle suitable to undertake the task and duties, along with winter and weather-related activities. These vehicles provide additional resilience to enable the council to respond to extreme weather conditions.

Parish Stewards' tasks - planned works

Typical planned local highway work undertaken by Parish Stewards includes (but is not exclusive to):

Hand clearing and cutting of growth from drainage grips and drain gully covers.
Hand clearing of blocked gullies.
Rodding of drainage systems.
Clearing of small culverts, pipes, and pits.
Clearing storm debris.
Trimming encroaching hedges and vegetation from around road signs and railings.
Cleaning and straightening small road signs.
Hand cutting small visibility areas.
Reactive emergency repairs, including pothole repairs (In accordance with Wiltshire Councils Highways Inspection Manual).
Find, fix and record potholes.
Responding to road closure requests from the emergency services.
Removal of ragwort (hand pulling or strimming of defined areas).
Treatment/removal of weeds.
Graffiti and fly-posting removal.
Clearance of debris and materials from scenes of road traffic collisions including clinical waste.
Siding out of footways and carriageways.
Clearance of small fallen trees or minor overhanging branches/limbs.

Parish Stewards' tasks – emergency works

Examples of types of emergency reactive local highway work undertaken by Parish Stewards includes (but is not exclusive to):

Resolving flooding issues – clearing drainage grips and drain gully covers, clearing of small culverts, pipes, and pits etc.
Placing emergency signage and traffic management.
Clearing structures and fixings and making them safe.
Reactive pothole repair.
Responding to road closure requests from the emergency services.
Small masonry type works, such as repairs to slabs and damaged kerbs.
Clearance of debris and materials from scenes of road traffic collisions, including clinical waste.
Clearance of storm-damaged trees from the highway, including the use of a chainsaw (where this work is extensive, further support may be required).

Parish Stewards' multiple person tasks – planned works

These jobs are a minimum two-person operation. They can be completed on an ad-hoc day, which is typically a Friday, but this is flexible:

Minor carriageway repairs, including vehicle overruns.
Works requiring traffic management.
Siding out of detritus from footways where there are larger volumes of material to clear or there is a significant length over 150m.
Further work tasks (non-Parish Steward tasks)These jobs will be completed by other operational gangs, with a specific task order required to detail the scop and nature of the works:
Small masonry-type works, such as repairs or replacement of slabs and damaged kerbs.
Erection of small signs, including posts in the footways, carriageways, and verges.
Fence and pedestrian barrier replacement.
Sanding and painting of barriers.
Large areas of sweeping and more than five gully dig outs or cleans.

To notify the Collingbourne Ducis Parish Council of works that could be completed by a Parish Steward, please visit our informative page to complete the works requested form. If you notice anything else that needs attention, visit the MyWilts app and reporting platform.

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