The Highways Agency, which manages, maintains and develops over 8000km of strategic roads in England, is facing one of the biggest challenges in its ten-year history. It is broadening its role to traffic management - making maximum use of the existing network and delivering direct services such as incident management and better route information to its 40 million customers.

The Highways Agency is responsible for the maintenance of all motorways and trunk roads in England. We are currently refocusing on traffic management in order to improve road congestion. Keeping traffic flowing along major routes is of paramount importance, not just to the drivers, but to the environment, to the tax payer and to the safety of all those who work on or near them.

The Highways Agency took on the role of traffic management from the Police on 26 April 2004 in the West Midlands, building towards 200 new staff working in the Regional Control Centre and on-road. We took over these duties across the rest of the country in Summer 2005.

The recruitment process involved establishing Regional Control Centres and on-road patrol teams. The Control Centres provides a 24-hour communications support to the Police, Highways Agency and Incident Support Units. The principle functions are -

• Dealing with the emergency services
• Taking telephone calls from internal and external sources
• Despatching and controlling on-road resources

The on-road teams patrol sections of motorways with the support and direction of the appropriate Regional Control Centre, keeping traffic flow moving safely and efficiently by responding to accidents, broken down vehicles, debris and even stray animals. These teams also accompany vehicles with unusual loads or abnormal loads.

Ensuring a smooth traffic flow is as hard as it is rewarding. This is not a simple case of answering calls and providing directions or driving a smart vehicle. This is critical management of resources, time, sometimes in extraordinary situations, often in distressing ones. However, we can give you all the training and support you need. What will make you a success is the kind of mental resilience that means you can manage a number of different situations at any one time, ensure total safety awareness at all times and deal with a crisis as and when it may arise.

Applicants should be aware that the role that they are applying for is specified as a safety critical post which requires us to provide continuity of cover over the English motorway network on a 24/7 full time basis. The Highways Agency is an equal opportunities employer and will consider all applications positively. If you wish to be considered for part time or flexible working please provide a clear indication of this, and the hours you wish to work, on your application form so that we can fully explore how your wish to work part time may be accommodated. Please be aware however that due to the nature of the role and the requirement to provide constant cover, it may not be possible to accommodate specific work patterns that are requested.