Boroughs phase merger of senior transport teams

Delivery

The London boroughs of Hammersmith & Fulham and Kensington & Chelsea are planning to adopt a phased approach to establishing a joint transport and highways management team.

The councils’ cabinets have approved plans to recruit a joint director and assistant director for transport and highways by next April. But new joint heads of transport and policy, network and highways, and parking will only follow when “practical”.

Officers have identified a risk of services being harmed during the transition period. To mitigate this, the cabinets have agreed to “retain some capacity to free up the new management team to concentrate on the demanding business of understanding bi-borough service delivery and ensuring that service quality does not deteriorate through the transition period”.

This is why some existing managers will be retained after April 2012 and the replacement joint heads of service will be recruited “at a later date”. The intention is that the full new joint service will be in place by April 2014, entailing 14 highways and transport managers either losing their jobs or being re-deployed.

The authorities are proceeding despite officers highlighting the risk that the projected £3.3m savings by 2014 may not be all forthcoming. In particular, they said £1.7m savings from shared services may not be accurate.