Agenda and minutes

There were no declarations of interest.

The minutes of the meeting held on 20^th January 2020 were agreed as a true record. There were no matters arising.

Report of Director of Transportation and Highways

The Cabinet Member considered a report of the Director of Transportation and Highways concerning an application from the owner of 1 Broomfield Road, Coventry requesting that the Council apply to the Magistrates’ Court for an order to stop up a section of highway, which currently formed part of Broomfield Road that fell within the private access to a number of private properties. The applicant had requested that this section of highway be removed and returned to their ownership.

The report indicated that the Council could make an application under section 116 of the Highways Act 1980 to the Magistrates Court seeking to have a highway stopped up, if it was considered that the highway in question was surplus to highway requirements. Currently, the section of highway in question, formed part of Broomfield Road, and was shown as highway maintainable at public expense and recorded on the Council’s List of Streets. As such, the Council had a statutory duty to maintain all highway that was on the Lists of Streets which included the repair of potholes and resurfacing. The Council was also liable for any injuries that might be caused through any lack of maintenance. A copy of the street plan was attached at an appendix to the report.

Upon investigation into the Broomfield Road application, to determine whether the highway in question was surplus to highway requirements, it had been considered that a drafting error may have occurred. As such, the Highway Authority was satisfied that this section of highway was no longer required and that the Council could support the application and pursue this with the Magistrates Court for it to be stopped up.

RESOLVED that approval be given that an application is made to the Magistrates’ Court for an order stopping up the land identified on the plan set out in the appendix to the report, as a highway, in accordance with the provision of Sections 116 and 117 of the Highways Act 1980 and agreement be given to pay the associated costs.

Report of Director of Transportation and Highways

The Cabinet Member considered a report of the Director of Transportation and Highways which sought approval for the installation of four new Average Speed Enforcement (ASE) schemes at locations in the city which had the highest number of people killed or seriously injured (KSI) based on the latest three year accident history rate. Councillor Williams, a Bablake Ward Councillor, attended the meeting for the consideration of this item.

The report indicated that the City Council received many requests for road safety measures from local residents and Councillors across the city concerned about inappropriate vehicular speed. This included a significant number of petitions requesting road safety measures where vehicular speeds were deemed excessive. Speeding vehicles continued to be a significant contributory factor in recorded personal injury collisions in Coventry.  Although the overall collision rates were declining on Coventry’s road network, the number of people killed or seriously injured remained high on major routes that carried high volumes of traffic. 

In March 2018, Cabinet approved the use of Average Speed Enforcement on London Road and Ansty Road to mitigate the KSI trend on these high traffic volume routes. Both schemes were introduced in January 2019. Early indications revealed that since their introduction vehicle speeds and KSIs had reduced. Therefore, in March 2019, Cabinet approved the installation of two further ASE schemes. These ASE schemes have been operational on Binley Road and Henley Road since January 2020.

Extensions to two existing schemes were also approved in March 2019. The extension to the London Road ASE scheme (extension from Allard Way to City Centre) had been operational since April 2020 and the Ansty Road extension (from Clifford Bridge Road to City Boundary) would be the next ASE scheme to become operational in the next few months.

The report provided further details about the reductions in accidents following the introduction of these ASE schemes.

The report informed how the ASE cameras worked by detecting vehicles through Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) and calculated their average speed by measuring the time taken to travel between defined points, a known distance apart. A clear signing strategy was used to inform drivers that they were entering an average speed control zone. The criteria used for selecting aa appropriate site was detailed.

Every year a citywide review of personal injury collisions was undertaken and used to identify the Local Safety Scheme Programme. As part of this review an additional four potential ASE locations had been identified. These were  Longford Road and part of Foleshill Road and Bedworth Road (from its junction with A444 to Ibstock Road); Bell Green Road (from its junction with A444 to its junction with Henley Road); Burnaby Road and The Scotchill (from its junction with Lockhurst Lane to its junction with Keresley Green Road); and Sky Blue Way (from its junction with Lower Ford Street to its junction with A444). The report detailed the number of personal injury collisions and their severity at these four sites.

The installation of new ASE projects would be funded  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

Report of Director of Transportation and Highways

The Cabinet Member considered a report of the Director of Transportation and Highways which sought approval to include four additional locations to the Local Safety Scheme programme for 2020/2021. This was to allow for possible delays resulting from engineering difficulties or issues raised at consultation, which could result in it not being possible to introduce all the initial schemes during the current year.

The report indicated that each year a citywide review of personal recorded injury collisions was undertaken. This information was used to identify and prioritise potential Local Safety Scheme locations. Local safety schemes were installed at locations where there were 6 or more recorded personal injury collisions in a 3 year period to try to reduce injuries. On 10 March, 2020 Cabinet approved the 2020/21 Local Safety Scheme Programme as part of the 2020/21 Transportation and Highway Maintenance Capital Programme. 

Since the approval of the initial programme four additional sites had been identified to be included in this year’s programme. The details were set out at an appendix to the report, the sites being Charter Avenue; Hipswell Highway; Torcross Avenue/ Avon Street; and Wheelwright Lane/ Holbrook Lane. All proposed Local Safety Scheme locations and schemes were subject to further investigation and possible delays resulting from engineering difficulties or issues raised at consultation. This could result in it not being possible to introduce all the originally proposed schemes during 2020/2021, therefore the approval of additional schemes would enable the available budget to be fully utilised. It was proposed to continue to undertake advance design at these four sites as well as the original sites and any schemes not completed this year would be installed as part of a future year’s programme.

RESOLVED that the inclusion of four additional locations, as detailed in Appendix A, in the 2020/21 Local Safety Scheme programme be approved.

There are no outstanding issues

There were no outstanding issues.

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 other items of public business.