Wigan Council has become the seventh local authority to make its highway network available for trials as part of this year’s Local Council Roads Innovation Group’s (LCRIG) Innovation Festival. Wigan joins Blackpool Council, Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council, NY Highways, Reading Borough Council, Bolton Council and Hampshire Council. John Williams, Highways Asset Manager at Wigan Council, speaks to LCRIG.
Q. Why is innovation so important?
A. “Innovation is not new, but the best organisations constantly evolve and learn from previous experiences and by trialling and implementing new products/processes. Wigan Council have always been an innovative council and we use innovation in order to adapt systems, process and procedures so our highway network is maintained to a safe standard, whilst improving our service efficiency and reducing our impact of the environment.”
Q. What do you hope to get out of your participation in the Innovation Festival?
A. “We want to work in partnership with innovative service providers and suppliers and help them to understand how they can meet local authorities and the highway industries future service needs. Furthermore, it will be a great opportunity for us to better understand the innovation that is available, discuss the councils needs and make a more informed decision of how best to utilise it.”
Q. In what ways do you plan on working with qualifying innovators and how will you help them?
A. “Wigan Council has and continues to work closely with a number of innovative companies and we see this as an opportunity to build on this approach to trial other services, products and materials within the borough. Working in this way allows us to observe the innovation in a real-world environment and gain real-time experiences. This in turn allows us to provide first-hand, constructive feedback on the innovation and also understand what was successful or not and where further innovation can be developed.”
Q. Can you provide any further details of the funding/trials you are making available?
A. “Wigan Council do not want to restrict trials to a certain area of works. We are open to utilising suitable innovation across the adopted highway network and its associated infrastructure. In particular, we recognise that our services will particularly need to take advantage of ‘data’ and ‘sensors’ in driving investment decisions and managing risk; and also products that will reduce our services carbon footprint and improve sustainability. Therefore, we would be looking at using innovation or trials to take this forward.”
Q. How can other councils help support and take forward innovative ideas?
A. “We recognise that no council can do this alone and as a member of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, we do network and share opportunities within this group. This means that we don’t unnecessarily duplicate the time, energy and cost of carrying out the same trials in multiple authorities – we trust the findings of our peers. As such, we would like to encourage all authorities to embrace innovation and share their learning by engaging with bodies such as LCRiG, where best practice can be promoted and then used to the benefit the whole highways sector.”
The Innovation Festival, which will take place from 6-7 July at Newark Showground, has been established to ‘make the case for innovation’ and will bring together local authorities, central government, the supply chain, associations and academia.