New software improving local gully maintenance, says council

Last updated Apr 5, 2024

February flooding on two Harrogate roads.

North Yorkshire Council says a new software has helped to improve maintenance of the county’s gullies.

A council report, which was written by Nigel Smith, head of highway operations at North Yorkshire Council, will be presented to the transport, economy, environment and enterprise overview and scrutiny committee next Wednesday.

It says maintenance has reportedly improved since the roll-out of a pilot scheme using software from a company called Kaarbontech in 2021.

The Stray Ferret is often flooded with messages expressing concern about the infrastructure of local gullies. These only increased during the sodden winter.

But the council has said the new software helps to determine the number of gullies that need to be attended each year and where they are located based on the previous year’s figures.

Mr Smith said:

“The analysis of this data ensures that the gully crews only need to attend gullies that require attention, therefore saving time and costs associated with gully maintenance.”

The report says the previous system was “much less reliable”, adding when some locations were attended the crews would find the gully was “silt-free and water in the pipework running freely”.

But, since using the software, it adds the attendance-to-gullies figure increased to 85% in 2022 and 2023, which was a 10% increase from the year prior.

The report also says of those gullies attended in the same period, a total of 93.2% of gullies needed cleaning, which suggests the “data-led programme was working”. It adds:

“Our surveys show that there are 164,171 gullies on the highway network.

“Data collected and sense-checked indicates that as of March 11, 2024, the total number of gullies attended was 92,554 based on information to the end of the previous week. This represents 87.11% of the programme, meaning the 2022/23 figure (85%) has already been exceeded.”

Mr Smith also notes the data collected was taken “against a backdrop of ten named storms during the winter season”, adding more than 10,000 gullies were attended in addition to those included in the Kaarbontech programme.

The report forecasts the attendance figure to increase to 93% by the end of this year.