Agenda item

A report from Neil Long/ Peter Stokes attached

Action Plan attached

Councillor Quinn, Cabinet Member for Environment attended the meeting along with Neil Long, Assistant Director (Operations) and Peter Stokes, Group Engineer – Highways Maintenance.

It was explained that Highways Operations is the in-house team responsible for reactive highway maintenance, highway weed control, road markings, highway drainage, highway safety inspections, highway related customer enquiries, street works inspections and highway enforcement.

The key highway assets maintained by the team were set out:

Roads – 660km

Footways – 1200km

Road Gullies – 42,000 no.

Road Signs – 15,000 no.

Guardrail – 15km

The key statistics relating to highways operations were also set out:

Completed over 13,00m2 of carriageway and footway repairs in 2016/2017.

Completed 5,516km of walked Highway Safety Inspection per annum.

Resolved 7,235 customer enquiries in 2016/2017.

It was reported that all road markings, highway drainage repairs and highway weed control works are carried out by external contractors, this equates to approximately 40% of the highway maintenance revenue budget for works.

It was explained that the Highway Operations revenue budgets for carriageway and footway maintenance have reduced by approximately 66% since 2009.

The total carriageway and footway revenue budget for 2017/2018 was reported as being £493,000 (based on a network length of 660km. The 2016/2017 greater Manchester average carriageway and footway revenue budget was approximately £726,000 for a 660km network length.

It was explained that Highways Operations employ a number of innovative systems and techniques including:

Handheld GPS technology to record inspections, instruct works and record defects/completed works;

CAT planing machines which reduce exposure to hand arm vibration;

Spray injection patching machines, and;

Highway inspection repairs.

It was reported that there remains a disparity between capacity and demand and it was projected that approximately 1500 highway safety repair jobs will not be completed in 2017/2018.

Those present were given the opportunity to ask questions and make comments and the following points were raised;

• Councillor Steve Wright referred to the £10m investment that had recently been announced and the fact that only £1.5m had been allocated for work in the November action plan. Councillor Wright asked why more actions hadn’t been included with regard to the investment money.

Neil explained that that the remaining £8.5m would be invested long term.

The £1.5 would be drawn down in three tranches of £500k for carriageway patch and footway lengths resurfacing and would focus on meeting reactive targets.

Neil reported that where planned utility work was due to be carried out maintenance would not take place. When companies such as Virgin Media indicate that they are carrying out a schedule of work Highways Operations will wait until that work has been carried out and then inspect.

It was also explained that there was a formula that was used to work out which roads were in most need of repair and this included the state and usage of the road insurance claims and public complaints.

• Councillor J Walker explained that work was currently being undertaken by a private company on some of the footpaths within his ward. Some of the reinstatement after completion looked quite messy and Councillor Walker asked what could be dome to rectify this.

It was explained that the New Roads and Street Works Act included the standards and specification required for the reinstatement of openings in highways. This allowed the Council to inspect works carried out to ensure that they have been completed to a satisfactory standard.

• Councillor Harris referred to weed spraying across the borough and the fact that there had only been 1 spray carried out.

Neil explained that there had been issues with the contract in relation to weed spraying and problems with the timing of when the spraying had been done. The issue had been evaluated and the spraying would revert back to twice a year from now on.

• Councillor Wright asked whether the £10m in the budget would be financed long term by a decline in insurance claims.

Neil explained that there wouldn’t be such a reduction in claims that this would be possible. £8.5m will be used on early intervention work and resurfacing which would reduce claims.

Councillor Quinn explained that the Confirm System allows for residents to go online and report issues such as potholes. As soon as the system receives the information it is automatically entered onto the system. It was anticipated that system would be updated to include a maps function which will help with tracking individual cases.

Neil explained that the aim was to have all issues reported online which will allow for easier tracking. It will also mean that residents can see if an issue has already been reported.

• Councillor Caserta asked whether there were any opportunities for the Highway Operations to generate income.

Peter explained that there were already a couple of services that the Council charged for carrying out such as dropped curbs. The Council would continue to look for income generating opportunities.

It was agreed:

1.           That the contents of the report be noted

2.           That Councillor Quinn, Neil Long and Peter Stokes be thanked for their report.