An innovation for drainage maintenance in Shropshire

Shropshire County Council has taken an innovative approach to improving the maintenance of its highway drainage.

In partnership with its contractors, Enterprise, vehicles which clear the county’s drains have been fitted with GPS tracking systems, recording the location of the vehicle and its operations.

This tracking system enables the council to access live information on the whereabouts of these vehicles so that when a flooding incident occurs, a response can be organised as quickly as possible.

Each vehicle automatically communicates its position and activity throughout the day to a central computer system. This information, as well as enabling a better response, can also be used to identify which drains require more cleaning, reducing any future flood risk.

John Everall, Shropshire County Council’s Cabinet member for environment, said: “This is a great piece of kit which we can use, not only to monitor our work, but also improve our operations.

“It is just one part of a continual process of improvement in highway maintenance where new technology is being employed to improve services and increase efficiency.”

6 January 2008