Over a decade ago, Walsall Council’s drainage maintenance was one based on a reactive response to incidents and drainage issues. Without a structured programme, they were attending only 30% of their drainage assets annually.
Faced with pressure on the revenue budget and a need to move to a risk-based approach, the Council were keen to review and optimise their drainage strategy.
The Council implemented Gully SMART, drainage management software that increases productivity and efficiency through the use of robust asset data for each gully.
This facilitated a new risk-based cleansing programme to support the Council’s decisions on the drainage strategy. The new strategy allowed Walsall Council to record and monitor silt levels in individual gully pots as part of each cleansing visit. This data fed back into Gully SMART allowed the Council to re programme the forward plan, eliminating unnecessary cleaning visits for gully's not requiring cleaning and targeting those with greater need for more frequent cleansing. This enabled the development of a maintenance cleansing programme that delivered effective outcomes and was more efficient from a cleansing resource perspective.
The system used a range of complex data sources to identify flooding hotspots, allowing for increased cleaning frequency where necessary to mitigate flood risk. Gully SMART also delivered a robust data set, offering evidence to support funding allocation and future budget setting. This assisted the Council with evidence-based decision-making, ensuring resources were directed to areas with the highest need and allowing appropriate budget to be set.
Building on a 12-year partnership, KaarbonTech and Walsall Council continue to work closely together, tackling issues as they arise and exploring how the SMART software can solve maintenance problems in new ways. Gullies are no longer cleaned on a reactive basis, and taking a risk-based approach to management has seen costs decrease, allowing robust budget allocation and predictable revenue spend.
By prioritising high-risk locations, the Council has significantly reduced flood incidents and improved road safety. The result was an 85% reduction in emergency call outs. The implementation of Gully SMART not only enhanced operational efficiency but also supported a commitment to sustainability by optimising resource use and minimising environmental impact through reduced vehicle movements and site visits.
"They've really grown with us and been really tuned in to what our needs are as a local authority.
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