Information for parish councils and communities

Your help is required for Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan (LCWIP) development

Public engagement on draft networks (Market Harborough area)

Continuing with our programme of work to inform the council’s approach to providing enhanced cycling and walking facilities in the county, public engagement launches this week asking for people's views on draft priority cycling and walking networks. These have been produced as part of the ongoing development of the Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plans (LCWIPs) for the Market Harborough area that includes Foxton and Great Bowden. 

Have your say

As many people as possible are encouraged to have their say on the draft plans by accessing the online map-based engagement.

Parishes are asked to promote this engagement opportunity to their local communities for people to help shape the priority cycling and walking networks from an early stage. 

The engagement runs for 4 weeks from Tuesday 26 September to Tuesday 24 October. Responses will be considered alongside early feedback already received from local councillors, to help inform the final priority cycling and walking routes to be included in the LCWIP for this area.

LCWIPs set out the vision and key priorities for infrastructure improvements in each of the areas, to create attractive, joined-up priority cycling and walking networks, encouraging and enabling people to travel more sustainably. LCWIPs are also key plans in helping us to secure funding to deliver these improvements to cycling and walking routes, including via government bidding opportunities and from developers.

It is currently anticipated that this LCWIP will be finalised and presented to the Cabinet for approval in autumn 2024.

Environment Matters newsletter

Take a look at our summer 2023 edition. You can also sign up to our mailing list to receive the newsletter by email.

Moving Traffic Enforcement (consultation ends 16 October 2023)

The County Council are considering applying for new enforcement powers to improve safety and reduce congestion on the roads. These powers will allow us to enforce moving traffic contraventions such as driving through a 'No Entry' sign, making banned turns, entering yellow box junctions when the exit is not clear, and driving where motor vehicles are prohibited, such as in pedestrianised town centres.

Currently, only the police can enforce these contraventions, but recent changes in legislation now allow local authorities outside of London to apply to do so also. As part of the application process, we must demonstrate where and how the powers would be used if approved.

We are interested in these powers because nationally there has been success using cameras to enforce these contraventions. By ensuring that the restrictions are clearly marked, and the presence of cameras is indicated by information signs, this has led to considerable reductions in contraventions and improvements to road safety.

We have identified two initial locations for camera enforcement, and these are:

• the junction of Cloverfield and the A47 Normandy Way, Hinckley.
• the junction of Cornfield and the A47 Normandy Way, Hinckley.

Details and information on how to have your say

National Highways & Transport (Nht) Public Satisfaction Survey - Parish Consultation

Leicestershire Parish Councils are invited to complete the annual NHT Public Representative Survey. The deadline for completed surveys is 31 October 2023, however if your Parish Meeting falls outside of this time, please contact Cassandra Haywood on 0116 3050504 and a later return date may be accommodated.

This survey is part of the Council’s continuing effort to understand and respond to the needs of its customers. The analysis of the survey results and the ability to trend and benchmark highways and transport services has allowed the County Council to monitor its performance on a number of highways and transport issues at a national and a local level.

The survey is designed to accept one response for each Parish Council so we would ask that, although the questionnaire is best completed by one person, the responses represent the overall views of the Parish Council on the Highways and Transport matters raised in the survey.

If you require any technical assistance, please contact Cassandra Haywood on 0116 3050504.

2023 NHT Public Satisfaction Online Survey - Parish Consultation

The company which oversees the NHT survey, ‘Measure 2 Improve’ (m2i), also undertakes an additional survey for Public Representatives. Last year, a high number of Parish Councils participated in the survey and the results provided officers with a greater understanding of Parish Councils’ needs and priorities for highways and transport services in Leicestershire. Due to these benefits the Council have agreed to participate again this year in the Public Representative Survey.

Alternatively, if you would like to complete a paper copy of the survey, a print-friendly version can be downloaded here:

Parish Council paper responses should be returned to Cassandra Haywood either by posting the completed survey for her attention to Room 700, County Hall, Glenfield, Leicestershire, LE3 8RJ or by scanning the completed survey and e-mailing it to cassandra.haywood@leics.gov.uk.

Your support in participating in this survey to help inform the continuous improvement of Highways and Transportation is very much appreciated.

Update on the new communications and engagement strategy

An update on the new strategy was sent out to all Parishes, Districts and Community Organisations. This strategy is to help improve the service your community receives on highways, transport and environment issues.  

Net Zero Toolkit

At the annual parish councils liaison event, hosted by Leicestershire County Council (County Hall, Monday 3 July 2023), Green Living Leicestershire’s Net Zero Toolkit featured strongly and made a positive impression on attendees. We hope that most parish councils will already have seen this, and that some will already be making use of it.

Green Living Leicestershire (GLL) is a partnership among Leicestershire authorities working collectively to deliver projects supporting sustainability and net zero targets across the county. Together with other key organisations, we have signed the Leicestershire Climate and Nature Pact to work towards a common goal: 

The toolkit provides a starting point for town councils, parish councils and community groups to address net zero in their local community – with practical tips and advice to encourage and support local residents and businesses to adopt lower carbon practices.

Remembrance Sunday 2023

This year Leicestershire County Council will be processing all road closures and restrictions for Remembrance Sunday.

Please get in touch with eventsnetworkmanagement@leics.gov.uk with your plans for this year’s event.

Deadline for applications is Friday 15 September. Also see: Plan an event

Licence to cultivate

In order to plant or cultivate on a highway verge you will need a licence to cultivate. To apply you will need to make an applicaiton for a cultivation licence through our Contact us form.

As highway verges are used by public utility companies to install and access their equipment, the licence ensures that those doing the work and that live in the environment are safe and those effected by the planting are happy with the works going ahead.  Experience has shown us that not everyone agrees with what is seemingly a positive development.

Leicestershire County Council take the safety of anyone working on the highway extremely seriously. An average of 70 people a year are seriously injured as a result of contact with underground electricity cables, so it is imperative that any planting of bulbs is done so safely.

Find out if a road is unadopted

To find out if a road is unadopted in most cases you can use the Highway adoption status search it allows anyone to find the adoption status of any street in the County. You can also use Find my street, which includes a map where you can click on any street to find the overall maintenance responsibility and classification.

As these are underpinned by two different datasets there may be discrepancies, these should be reported to hre@leics.gov.uk as well as any queries about highway status/extent.

New guidance - Licencing of apparatus over, along or across a public highway (S178)

There is new guidance on the licencing process for any apparatus that you may propose to attach to a street lighting column owned by us.

Such apparatus may include (but not be limited to):

• hanging baskets
• seasonal decorations
• banners
• CCTV cameras
• ANPR cameras
• Vehicle Activated Signs (VAS)
• speed indicator devices
• wi-fi equipment
• catenaries (a system of overhead wires above the highway used to support electricity cables)

Also see Street lighting columns and structural testing.

New traffic website

Highways receive a great number of enquiries about a variety of issues on the road, many of these are around parking, speeding and pedestrian safety.

To help support communities in understanding what solutions are available, a new website has been developed to provide clear and straight forward guidance on the types of options that may be appropriate to address a particular issue as well as the criteria, process involved and potential costs.

This new website has been designed to be easy to use and allow residents and communities to make informed decisions on the most appropriate and effective solutions that would benefit their community.

The information on the website does not yet include all the information we would want to make available to our residents but will continue to be developed and we very much welcome your feedback and suggestions, please email trafficwebsite@leics.gov.uk.

The website Leicestershire Highways A Roads to Zebras is now live.

The intention is for this website to eventually include other key functions of the department providing a one-stop shop for road, waste and environment information and guidance.

Blue Heart Campaign update

We are delighted to be the first Midlands council to join the BLUE Campaign for rewilding Britain’s roadside verges!

Over 700 species of wild flower grow on the UK’s road verges – nearly 45% of our total flora. And where wild flowers lead, wildlife follows – a multitude of bees, butterflies, birds and bugs. All enjoyed by 23 million road commuters. With over 97% of meadows destroyed since the 1930s, road verges are a vital refuge for pollinators and other wildlife (plantlife). This delightful show of the botanical potential of verges on our doorsteps has inspired and encouraged many more people to take local action to protect and enhance the way there local verges are managed.

Selected urban verges are to be removed from our annual cutting programmes, allowing the verges to flourish and develop. Building on the pilot success of the 2020 Urban Verge Wildflower Scheme, we are not part of a much bigger national campaign called the Blue Campaign.

This season will see almost 40 parishes display blue hearts highlighting their dedicated urban wildlife verges. The Verge Project gives local parishes and their associated communities the chance to play more of an active role in how their local verges are managed for local wildlife. Many of these verges historically have interesting wildflower species already, but due to a frequency in cut, they have been unable to flourish so have laid dormant for some time.

Following a cessation in cut, these verges will be surveyed in June by our partners at NatureSpot for their wildflowers and grasses. Upon assessment of the verge surveys, management suggestions will be made to support wildlife friendly management of these verges. This usually includes implementing just one cut a year in mid-September, leaving the cuttings in situ for 7 days before removal, and/or the sowing of native UK wildflower species or plug plants from sustainable, local providence.

It also gives the local community the chance to get more involved with recording and enjoying the abundance of colour many of these verges offer, including a bespoke parish council wild places page, that showcases each of the parishes verges that are signed up to this scheme. In addition, all the wildlife data collected will feed into our county wide wildlife data, to help with future protection and enhancement.

Due to the popularity of the blue hearts, we are oversubscribed for this year and it is now too close to the grass cutting season start date to process any more applications, however, we are now collecting reserve contact details for our 2022 scheme. We are also looking to explore wider potential of sites for inclusion, including public open spaces in addition to roadside verges. If you would like to find out more and register an interest for 2022 please contact us at parishgrass@leics.gov.uk.

Street lighting columns and structural testing

See our frequently asked questions and a copy of the Licence Application Pack for attaching decorations and hanging baskets etc. for lamp posts: