Hello – I’m secretary for the Two Tunnels group. We’re a community-based group promoting Bath’s ‘Two Tunnels’ walking and cycling route.
West Country Traffic Management have been providing services in connection with a four day suburban road closure – in an area with an element of sheltered housing – to permit the delivery and installation of a thirty metre steel bridge span for our route – the work site has a considerable local profile and is very visible to the public.
I’m writing to thank you, as your staff are an asset for the public face of our current worksite. While there’s a lot of support for our project from people local to it, the bridge work and road closure is controversial to some (and despite the copious advance publicity and very adequate signage, unexpected to motorists of the sat-nav persuasion).
Your staff have had their hands full in dealing with a steady stream of people of all ages and abilities on foot, cycle and vehicles needing to divert round the road closure. This inclues considerable numbers of people who support our project and are curious about the civil engineering work and its progress – as well as the occasional confrontational individual. It’s most helpful to our cause that your staff seem to be working well with the other contractors on the site at the same time as managing the public.
Staff working in this role often retreat to a vehicle cab at the first opportunity and manage things from there. Your staff however have been addressing the task professionally, dealing with the public in a friendly, proactive and approachable manner. I’m surprised at the range of communication skills they need to deploy to do the job well – and they’re being most helpful to us in terms of enhancing our support from the public of the work to create the Two Tunnels route.
The peak of the public interest aspect of all this will be this Friday when the steel span for the bridge is delivered and erected. I have every confidence that your staff will continue to be ambassadors.
I’ll copy our committee in to this message so that everyone knows how well this aspect of the bridge work is going.
Best wishes
Mark
Gareth,
I have today spoken to some of the team involved in the surface dressing operation and a common theme being conveyed to me is the standard of the traffic management team and banksman. I would like to take this opportunity to inform you that the personnel concerned have fitted in well within the team and are fully committed to the smooth running of the operation on a daily basis. In particular it has been noted that they are conversing with the public in the manner requested and the banksman is in the words of the phoenix driver “ making life easy for me”. They are an important part of the overall operation. If the same standards are maintained for the remainder of the season I will be more than pleased. The personnel involved are:-
Lee Parnell.
Steve Crocker.
Daniel Gray.
Josh Southam.
Regards.
Richard English
Area Surfacing Manager
Highways Service
Cornwall Council
Tel: 01872 32 7839
Fax: 01872 32 4579
renglish@cornwall.gov.uk
Room 10, South Building,
Bodmin Group Centre
Castle Canyke Road
Bodmin
PL31 1DZ
www.cornwall.gov.uk
