Code of Practice for litter and refuse and grass cutting: FOI release

Information requested

"Dear Transport Scotland, I would seek Transport Scotland's interpretation of the ROC operating contract conditions in respect of removal of litter and refuse prior to grass cutting.

Para 4.15.2 of Schedule 7 Part1 of the 4th Generation Term Contract states:

".....The Operating Company shall liaise with the Litter Authority to coordinate litter picking operations prior to grass cutting."

The clarification sought are:

Does the above contract condition require litter (and refuse) to be removed prior to grass cutting?"

Response

Thank you for your email seeking clarity on Operating Company operations relating to litter and refuse clearance. You asked the question “Does the above contract condition require litter (and refuse) to be removed prior to grass cutting?”

The first thing to address is that the Contract(s) that you referenced, “4th Generation Term Contract” (4G), have now all concluded. These management and maintenance contracts, covering the Scottish Trunk Road Network all came to an end during the period August 2020 to August 2022. In their place, new Network Management Contracts (NMC’s) were established and as before these are organised on a geographical basis and comprise four units (SW,NW,SE and NE). These Contracts are publicly available on the Transport Scotland website.

The specific reference that you have picked up on from 4G, “The Operating Company shall liaise with the Litter Authority to coordinate litter picking operations prior to grass cutting.” no longer exists explicitly within NMC. Rather, the onus has been placed on the Operating Company to adopt measures as they see appropriate to comply with the Contract in respect of maintenance level set for litter and refuse and where the Local Authority are the authority responsible for litter picking (all Trunk Roads other than Motorways and Special Roads), there is an expectation that the Operating Company will continue to work with Local Authorities to agree optimum times for litter picking to meet the standards set.

The NMC’s set the requirement “Subject to the other provisions of this Contract, the Operating Company shall ensure that all roads and other land within the Unit are maintained to the standards of a Category 6 Zone as set out in the Code of Practice on Litter and Refuse (Scotland) 2018.”

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