Plans outlined to clean all council road gullies in a bid to improve road safety

Thursday, 16 January 2025 10:54

By Central Radio

Plans are set to be discussed to transform how the council approaches gully cleaning with the aim to ensure that all of the council's 294,000 road gullies are visited on a regular schedule.

At Lancashire County Council's meeting, Councillors will be asked to approve plans to expand the current gully cleaning programme.

The service proposes moving to a planned cleaning schedule for those of our 294,000 gullies that are currently managed on a reactive-only basis. This would be a more cost-effective service to residents and highway users, which would reduce the overall flood risk across the county, while collating valuable data to further improve our approach to gully cleansing in future years.

Although the new approach is designed to largely remove the need for reactive cleans, the service will adopt a new risk-based approach for future reactive visits. Any gullies that do not meet the criteria for a reactive visit will be serviced on their next scheduled visit.

Councillor Rupert Swarbrick, cabinet member for Highways and Transport said:

"This new programme will mean that we are investing in a planned cleaning schedule for all of our 294,000 gullies, ensuring that these are all cleared regularly.

"This new policy reflects the lessons learned from reviewing our existing scheme. By amassing data and experience since 2019, we have been able to create a more efficient and cost-effective programme.

"We will still be undertaking reactive gully cleaning where it meets the criteria and urge residents to continue to keep reporting blocked gullies so these can be dealt with quickly and efficiently."

Find out more information in the Cabinet report online at Council - Agenda for Cabinet