Agenda and minutes

Councillor Innes, Cabinet Member, reported that Sam McGinty, Solicitor and Place Team Leader was attending his last Cabinet Member meeting prior to leaving the Council to take up a new post at Loughborough University. She thanked him for all his work and support over the previous 2 years and wished him well for the future.

Further to Minute 54 below headed ‘Petition – Request for Improvements to Greens Road’ Councillor Lakha informed of his position as a school governor of Whitmore Park Primary School. He remained in the meeting during the consideration of this item.

The minutes of the meeting held on 20^th March 2017 were agreed and signed as a true record. There were no matters arising.

Report of the Deputy Chief Executive (Place)

To consider the above petition, bearing 18 signatures, which has been submitted by Councillor Williams, a Bablake Ward Councillor, who has been invited to the meeting for the consideration of this item.

The Cabinet Member considered report of the Deputy Chief Executive (Place) concerning a petition bearing 18 signatures which was submitted by Councillor G Williams, a Bablake Ward Councillor, who attended the meeting and spoke in support of the petitioners. The report had been requested by Councillor Williams following the receipt of the determination letter. The petitioners were requesting that the Council urgently addressed health and safety concerns on Norman Place Road, in particular the resurfacing of pavements, speeding issues and resolving dangerous parking along Norman Place Road and outside shops near to the island of Brownshill Green Road, to make it safer to cross. Petitioners Roberta Gray and Chris Kane also attended the meeting and outlined their concerns.

The report indicated that Norman Place Road was a residential road and a bus route and had a number of shops including a Co-op located in the vicinity of its roundabout junction with Brownshill Green Road. A review of the personal recorded injury collision history of Norman Place Road showed that in the last 3 years (for the time period up to 30 November 2016) no injury collisions had been recorded.

The Cabinet Member had considered the petition prior to this meeting and in response requested that the issue was dealt with by a determination letter rather than a formal report being submitted to a meeting, to be able to deal with the matter more efficiently. A copy of the determination letter was set out at an appendix to the report. The letter advised of the actions proposed and approved in response to each of the issues raised as follows:

i)  Resurfacing of footways – following an assessment of the current condition of the footways and taking into consideration the usage and condition when compared with similar footways across the city, the site was to be held on the City Council’s forward programme list and its condition would continue to be monitored; it would be scored against all other similar sites Citywide. If the footways on Norman Place Road receive a priority score, they would be included in a future maintenance treatment programme, budget permitting.

ii)  Speed reduction measures – due to budgetary constraints requests for road safety schemes were prioritised utilising recorded personal injury collision data and as no injury collisions had been recorded in the last 3 years, Norman Place Road did not meet the criteria for a local safety scheme. Contact details were provided should residents wish to get involved in the Community Speed Watch initiative.

iii)  Parking restrictions - due to budgetary constraints requests for waiting restrictions were prioritised, as no injury collisions had been recorded in the last 3 years it was not proposed currently to install any new restrictions.

iv)  Pedestrian facilities - the roundabout junction of Norman Place Road and Brownshill Green Road would be added to the pedestrian dropped kerb request list for consideration for inclusion in a future programme. When the location was prioritised for works to be undertaken, measures to address inconsiderate  ...  view the full minutes text for item 54.

Report of the Deputy Chief Executive (Place)

To consider the above petition, bearing 36 signatures, which has been submitted by Councillor Williams, a Bablake Ward Councillor, who has been invited to the meeting for the consideration of this item.

The Cabinet Member considered a report of the Deputy Chief Executive (Place) concerning a petition bearing 36 signatures which was submitted by Councillor G Williams, a Bablake Ward Councillor, who attended the meeting and spoke in support of the petitioners. The report had been requested by Councillor Williams following the receipt of the determination letter. The petitioners were requesting that the Council to urgently address the concerns of local residents of Greens Road, Keresley, in particular that the pavements be completely resurfaced along the whole of Greens Road, that drainage issues be sorted to prevent flooding, that double yellow lines be put at both ends of the road and speed reduction measures introduced. Also to look at parking restrictions to address the problems caused by a neighbouring primary school. Petitioners Bridget Scally and Robert Ellison also attended the meeting and detailed their concerns.

The report indicated that Greens Road was a residential road with two short cul de sacs located off; Regiment Court and Battalion Court. Whitmore Park Primary School was located nearby on Halford Lane and the road was not part of a bus route. A review of the personal recorded injury collision history of Greens Road showed that in the last 3 years (for the time period up to 31 December 2016) no personal injury collisions had been recorded.

The Cabinet Member had considered the petition prior to this meeting and in response requested that the issue was dealt with by determination letter rather than a formal report being submitted to a meeting, to be able to deal with the matter more efficiently. A copy of the determination letter was set out at an appendix to the report. The letter advised of the action proposed and approved in response to each of the issues raised as follows:

i)  Resurfacing of footways – following an assessment of the current condition of the footways and taking into consideration the usage and condition when compared with similar footways across the City, the site would be held on the City Council’s forward programme list and its condition would continue to be monitored; it would be scored against all other similar sites Citywide. If the footways on Greens Road received a priority score, they would be included in a future maintenance treatment programme, budget permitting.

ii)  Drainage Issues - the road drainage gullies along the length of Greens Road were cleaned out on 9 November 2016. This process identified that the gullies and ensuing connections were working as required and free-running. However, at the junction of Halford Lane there was a blockage in the Severn Trent Water main piped system which was preventing water from flowing away efficiently at this location. This problem had been passed on to Severn Trent Water who were responsible for this matter and they have indicated that they would investigate and rectify.

iii)  Parking - The junctions at each end of Greens Road (Bennetts Road South and Halford Lane) would be added to the waiting restriction request  ...  view the full minutes text for item 55.

Report of the Deputy Chief Executive (Place)

To consider the above petition, bearing 99 signatures, which has been submitted by Councillor Williams, a Bablake Ward Councillor, who has been invited to the meeting for the consideration of this item.

The Cabinet Member considered a report of the Deputy Chief Executive (Place) concerning a petition bearing 99 signatures which was supported by Councillor G Williams, a Bablake Ward Councillor, who attended the meeting and spoke on behalf of the petitioners. The petition spokesperson was also invited but was unable to attend. The report had been requested by Councillor Williams following the receipt of the determination letter. The petitioners were concerned about traffic issues caused by large HGVs using Hawkes Mill Lane between the Browns Lane and Washbrook Lane. Recently a few signs had been upgraded but they have had no mitigatory effects.  Some large blue Police signs as seen in Meriden had been promised but hadn’t been installed. There were very tight bends along with high and overgrown bushes, hedges and trees which restricted visibility and were obstructive to traffic, pedestrians and riders. The petitioners were suggesting a few road humps along the Lane could alleviate the traffic problems.

The report indicated that Hawkes Mill Lane was partly residential and partly rural in nature. The speed limit varied along the length of the road; it was 30mph where properties fronted the road and it was street lit, and the national speed limit applied in the area where there were no properties and the road was not lit. Various warning signs were also sited along the length of the road.

A review of the personal recorded injury collision history of Hawkes Mill Lane showed that in the last three years (for the time period up to 31 December 2016) no personal injury collisions had been recorded. A longer period of time than the normal 3 years was also investigated and this showed that no personal injury collisions had been recorded in the last ten years.

The Cabinet Member had considered the petition prior to this meeting and in response requested that the issue was dealt with by determination letter rather than a formal report being submitted to a meeting, to be able to deal with the matter more efficiently. A copy of the determination letter was attached at an appendix to the report. The letter advised that at the moment, there was not enough funding to pay for the many requests received from residents for traffic calming and other road safety measures. Therefore requests had to be prioritised using injury collision data and that records showed that there had been no injury collisions on Hawkes Mill Lane in the last three years, therefore, it did not meet the criterion. 

The letter also suggested that the petitioners might want to get involved in the Community Speedwatch initiative.

Councillor Williams informed of the Community Speedwatch exercises recently undertaken on Hawkes Mill Lane and highlighted the concerns of the local police regarding the speeding traffic. He referred to an e-mail from the petition spokesperson informing of residents’ concerns regarding the potential for accidents to occur. Councillor Williams requested that the speed limit on the 60mph section of the road be reduced. He also referred  ...  view the full minutes text for item 56.

Report of the Deputy Chief Executive (Place)

The Cabinet Member noted a report of the Deputy Chief Executive (Place) that contained a list of the outstanding issues and summarised the current position in respect of each item.

Any other items of public business which the Cabinet Member decides to take as matters of urgency because of the special circumstances involved

There were no additional items of public business.