Annual Report 2021/22

Connected and Smart

By 2050 people can easily get in, out and around our city and we have a world class digital infrastructure.

  • facilitate a wide choice of transport that improves accessibility, connectivity and mobility to all residents. Including, working with public transport providers to deliver these long-term aspirations.
  • we are leading the way in making public and private travel smart, clean and green.
  • Southend-on-Sea is a leading smart city, using technology in smart ways to enable improved resident services, and ensure digital inclusion. Our connectivity, data and principles approach to digital enable us to facilitate better decision making, automated service.

We continue to work to ensure that our residents, visitors, and those who work in Southend-on-Sea can easily get in, out of and around our city. We are also working to ensure that we have a world class digital infrastructure.

The £8 million essential highway maintenance works on the A127 were completed in March 2022. The main highway works for the £5 million Bell Junction improvement project have also been completed. This has reduced congestion, improved pedestrian crossing facilities and improved air quality in the area.

We have invested £10 million into resurfacing Southend-on-Sea’s roads and pavements. 46 roads and 45 pavements across the city have been resurfaced this year. 10 zebra crossings have also been revamped. This will make the designated crossing zones safer for pedestrians and road users.

Potholes and road defects have been identified and fixed by our contractor Marlborough. The six-week project involved a team of spotters going out and finding and marking up potholes.

Work to install new pedestrian and road safety barriers across the city was completed in May. It is part of a £440,000 investment from the council’s capital investment programme. Replacement metal road safety barriers have been installed alongside some of the city’s busiest roads. They replace existing structures at several locations, including Queensway, Western Esplanade, Chichester Road, Prince Avenue, Leigh High Street, Priory Crescent and Wakering Road. Along Prittlebrook cycleway and footpath, 120 metres of safety fencing was replaced. Nine additional vehicle restriction barriers were also installed to prevent vehicles from driving onto the walkway.

Evidence data is being gathered to support the Local Transport Plan 4. The plan will provide strategic direction for improving all forms of transport in the city to 2040. We will engage with councillors, council officers, businesses, community groups and residents in 2022.

A CCTV camera project was launched outside a local primary school and nursery. The project will monitor the impact of dangerous and illegal parking outside of our schools. The aim of the ongoing trial is to provide additional safety measures for children entering and leaving school. It follows on from the success of the School Streets scheme, which was launched by the council last year to promote active travel and improve air quality.

The council is helping to support the take up of electric vehicles amongst residents. This includes those without access to off-street car parking. Following public consultation in November, the council adopted the Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure for New Development Supplementary Planning Document. This provides the foundation to support a publicly accessible charging network.

In October, the council invited the public to share their opinions on the first parking strategy to be implemented within the city. The strategy will provide an overarching plan for how existing and future parking schemes across the city are implemented. It will ensure that parking is fair, safe, consistent and transparent, and street parking is accessible for residents.

Since the launch of the Southend Pass in April 2021, over 4,700 passes have been purchased, utilising over 663,000 hours of parking. Tylers Avenue and the Western Esplanade parking bays in the City Centre have seen the most use, with 45,260 and 34,750 visits, respectively.

Technology

There have been initiatives this year to increase digital inclusion across Southend-on-Sea. People have been provided with skills, support, access, training, equipment, guidance and awareness. These initiatives have been supported by organisations such as Job Links, Trust Centre Plus, South Essex Homes, Southend Adult Community College, Rough Sleeper Outreach, A Better Start Southend, the Community Renewal Fund, One Southend and our family centres and libraries.

Work is ongoing to design a new platform for resident services to replace MySouthend. Work has also been done to improve the current MySouthend system, including:

  • language and data entry requirements
  • improvements to the user experience
  • integration with the waste management provider Veolia to improve resident service and experience
  • a new access portal to provide residents with online access to Council Tax and benefits
  • a portal for landlords to interact with the council.

Southend-on-Sea’s £30 million full fibre upgrade, in partnership with CityFibre, has progressed. Over 55% of Southend-on-Sea now have access to gigabit broadband. The completion of the upgrade will see Southend-on-Sea become one of the few places in the UK to have the fastest internet speeds possible. The programme is due to be concluded by April 2023.

Outcome success measures

  • 77% of respondents found it easy to get around the city (all) (NHT Survey 2021)
  • 72% of respondents without a car found it easy to get around the city (NHT Survey 2021)
  • 66% of respondents with a disability found it easy to get around the city (NHT Survey 2021)
  • Southend Pass registrations: 4,715 active; 7,158 subscriptions; and 354,516 parking sessions
  • 18 publicly available electric vehicle charging devices
  • 0.73% of all vehicle registrations that are for ultra-low emissions vehicles
  • 35.72 µg/m³ nitrogen dioxide annualised mean concentration at the Prince Avenue Air Quality Management Area
  • 84,915 registered MySouthend users
  • 94.3% of MySouthend service request forms completed independently

Contact Southend 2050

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