Community Stewards
Community Stewards Role
There are thirteen Community Stewards, including three Senior Stewards, that cover the whole highway network in East Sussex with each one being responsible for their own geographical area.
The primary role of the steward is to carry out regular inspections to keep our available network safe for all our customers and to comply with our statutory duty under section 41 of The Highways Act 1980.
Dealing with customer enquiries that get logged by our Customer Contact Centre is an important part of the job; all enquiry details are sent through to the steward’s mobile tablet device and once inspected the proposed action is available immediately for our Customer Agents to respond back to the customer.
The stewards are the first port of call for ESCC Members and Parish Councils and communicate regularly to help resolve any issues.
Highway safety inspections
We carry out regular safety inspections all year round which are walked or driven, with all roads inspected at least once a year. The inspection route is pre-defined and all assets within the highway boundary are checked against our repair intervention level criteria. Anything that exceeds these criteria is documented and raised for repair within set timescales. Sometimes we may only be able to make a defect safe. If this happens we will carry our a permanent repair within 28 days.