A review of the way council roads chiefs decide which pavements are improved and adopted each year is set to be discussed by councillors.
The Road Maintenance Partnership brings forward a programme each year based on 12 principles which date back more than a decade, but now want to simplify and expand the process.
Mark Flynn depute convener of Dundee City Council’s city development committee said: “The state of our paths and footways affects everyone in all of our communities and as such it is a high-profile and sometimes emotive issue.
“To try to ensure that it’s not only private pavements that are included and to make sure that social benefits are considered we are proposing some changes.”
Proposed alterations including halving the criteria on which decisions are made and creating a scoring matrix on a scale of one to six for each.
From time to time councillors and members of the public submit requests for improvement and adoption of internal housing estate footways and off street parking areas in private ownership. Under the revised scheme these areas would become eligible for maintenance.
To reflect the proposed inclusion of roads, footways and off street parking areas councillors will also be asked to change the name of the scheme to Unadopted Assets.
Roads in Dundee are maintained jointly by Dundee City Council and Tayside Contracts as the Roads Maintenance Partnership. Its work is monitored and compared with national standards and based on 77 key performance indicators.
Adopting a footway brings it under the council’s responsibility for maintaining its condition.
With the current scheme due to run for another year, if the city development committee, which meets on Monday (March 11) approves the proposed change it will be brought in for financial year 2020/21.
Dundee City Council
Dundee draws skilled workers from a 60-minute catchment population of 640,000 and has a local population of over 140,000. The availability of a large pool of highly skilled labour is a key feature in the Dundee economy. Flexibility in the labour force is currently more prevalent in Dundee than in Scotland as a whole. All forms of labour market flexibility - part-time, temporary employment, self-employment and shift work - are widely operational within the city. Labour force stability in the city is excellent, enabling companies to plan with confidence. Labour turnover levels are less than 5% and absenteeism averages 2%.
