Region
Greater London
The moment we saw Traffic Suite, it was just this really clear graphical representation of what the restrictions were. The admin is massively reduced. Batch schemes that used to take as much as four weeks to do, now took us less than two weeks. A huge time saving.
Tom Robison, Programme & Policy Manager in Highways, Southwark Council
The London Borough of Southwark, as shown in the Streets Portal
Overview
Local authorities across the UK are facing a pivotal moment in traffic management. With the Department for Transport’s impending Digital Traffic Regulation Order (D-TRO) regulations on the horizon, the pressure to modernise is real.
Southwark Council is one such authority leading the charge. Led by Tom Robison, Programme & Policy Manager in Highways, Southwark’s 20-strong team manages everything from multi-million-pound program funds to commercial advice, GIS mapping, and traffic orders.
Southwark partnered with AppyWay to embark on an ambitious digital transformation journey, moving away from fragmented, text-based workflows toward a pioneering, unified traffic order ecosystem. Here is how they did it.
Watch Tom's Story
The Challenge: Public Confusion & Administrative Bloat
Before transitioning to AppyWay, Southwark Council relied on traditional, text-based traffic orders published as static adverts or online PDFs. While legally compliant, these text-heavy documents created significant friction for both local residents and the council’s internal teams.
”One of the most frequent complaints used to be the inaccessibility of traffic orders... Even if you've got a PDF online, it was still really hard to interrogate... It's talking about 4.7 meters from the lamp column outside number 36, and you've got to try and work that out.
Tom RobisonProgramme & Policy Manager in Highways, Southwark Council
Administratively, the manual workload was equally challenging. Managing amendments required staff to constantly cross-reference new revisions against complex parent orders within Controlled Parking Zones (CPZs). This heavy reliance on manual cross-checking frequently caused operational bottlenecks.
Minor changes compiled into “batch schemes” often took up to four entire weeks to process from start to finish under the old system.
The Solution: AppyWay's Traffic Suite
Southwark Council made a strategic decision to completely future-proof its operations by rolling out AppyWay’s comprehensive Traffic Suite.
The transition to Mapper instantly provided a clear, map-based representation of on-street restrictions, making the layout immediately intuitive to interrogate. The visual format instantly simplified administrative tasks, shrinking the turnaround time for batch schemes from four weeks down to less than two weeks – a massive 50% increase in efficiency.
However, Southwark didn’t stop at standard on-street orders. They worked closely with AppyWay to build a truly interconnected traffic order ecosystem that unifies multiple municipal functions under a single umbrella:
-
On-Street & Off-Street Integration: As a major social landlord, Southwark Council manages a vast network of housing estates that require off-street parking management. The council successfully integrated these off-street estate orders alongside traditional highway restrictions.
-
Temporary Traffic Regulation Orders (TTROs): Navigating major dynamic events like the London Marathon, demands a multitude of complex temporary restrictions. Southwark brought its temporary orders into the map-based platform.
-
Enforcement Alignment: Civil enforcement teams require immediate, accurate visibility of in-force restrictions to do their jobs effectively. Incorporating enforcement into AppyWay unified platform ensured that officers and highways teams operate from the exact same data.
The Impact: Shifting to a Single Source of Truth
The operational feedback from Southwark’s highways team has been overwhelmingly positive, particularly for the council’s specialist Traffic Management Order (TMO) lead. Highly specialised local authority personnel are a finite and expensive resource; AppyWay’s intuitive workspace has significantly alleviated their daily administrative burden.
Instead of spending hours extracting manual document details or fielding endless internal queries, the TMO lead can now simply share direct digital system links to AppyWay Streets.
”t’s just transparency. It's open. There's one source for everything. It's the notice, it's the engagement, it's the TMOs... everything in one place.
Tom RobisonProgramme & Policy Manager in Highways, Southwark Council
This consolidated approach ensures complete operational transparency, drastically reduces public friction, and maintains an accurate “single source of truth” across departments.
Advice to Other Authorities: Embrace the Digital Shift
For local authorities currently waiting on the edge of their seats for final D-TRO regulation updates from the Department for Transport, Tom Robison has a clear message: don’t wait.
While regulatory compliance may influence the timing of your transition, digitizing traffic orders should be driven by a desire to optimize your operations and provide a vastly superior service to your community.
”To me, the biggest thing going digital is not to be feared, it's to be embraced. This revolutionises the whole process... for the public, for the officers... Yeah, don't be afraid.
Tom RobisonProgramme & Policy Manager in Highways, Southwark Council
Southwark Council pushed hard to get their unified system live on schedule, and the outcome speaks for itself. By moving away from text-based bloat and anchoring their infrastructure in a digital ecosystem, they have set a new benchmark for modern municipal highways management.
Ready to digitise your traffic orders and stay ahead of the D-TRO timeline? Get in touch with the AppyWay team today to discover how the Traffic Suite can transform your local authority’s workflows.
Thriving cities, from the kerb up
Ready to learn more?
Get the traffic order suite built for today’s challenges.
