Agenda item

Briefing Note of the Director of Transportation and Highways

The Cabinet Member for City Services introduced the item.

In response to a number of enquiries from ward Councillors, the Leader referred an item to the Communities and Neighbourhoods Scrutiny Board to demonstrate and clarify the process for Highway Maintenance scheme selection. The Scrutiny Board considered a Briefing Note the Highways Asset Management Programme. At the meeting the Director of Transportation and Highways highlighted the following:-

·  In January 2016, Cabinet approved the Council’s Highways Asset Management Policy and Strategy documents. These documents set out at a strategic level the approach the Council takes to its provision of Highway Maintenance.

·  The use of asset management principles had been applied for many years in Coventry to ensure appropriate investment with longer term planning and this process was set out in detail within the Highways Infrastructure Asset Management Plan which was published in 2016.

·  Every year during December and January the Council’s Highway Maintenance Technical Services engineers, working with the Asset Management Engineer prepare a draft programme of schemes for approval at Cabinet. The schemes are presented as part of the Transportation and Highway Maintenance Capital Programme in March each year.

·  The Asset Management Engineer maintains a Forward Works Programme (FWP) holding information against every road and pavement in Coventry regardless of current need for treatment.

·  The Forward Works Programme was a key tool in managing the process.

·  There was no legal threshold regarding the maintenance of the highway. Local thresholds had been agreed based on case law and claims against Local Authorities.

·  The priority was to ensure the highway was safe for all users.

·  There were two programmes of work; preventative maintenance and  planned maintenance.

·  Preventative maintenance, which involved a thin surface overlay was not always the most aesthetically pleasing option but can provide a cost effective way to extend the life of the highway.

·  All local authorities faced a challenge to maintain pavements. The cost per square meter of maintenance was significantly higher than carriage way works due to the work generally needing to be done by hand.

·  A JCB pothole probe was being used on highways to free up staff to work on the pavements. Officers were monitoring and evaluating the performance of the JCB pothole probe.

·  The Government had tested and rated the Council’s approach to asset management and had recognised the approach as good and the Council had received the full amount of incentive funding.

·  The Council would need to consider how to prioritise pavement repairs within the priorities.

·  There were around 600 miles of road and 1000 miles of pavement in the City. Coventry had an unusually high number of concrete flagstone pavements at around 40%. These flagstones were not designed to take the weight of vehicles crossing them which happens frequently in some areas to either to access gardens for parking or due to two wheeled on street parking in narrow roads.

·  It was important to maintain footpaths as they supported the Council’s objective to get people active across the City.

The Scrutiny Board asked questions and received responses on a number of issues, including:-

·  Where concrete flagstones were like to be driven on, flagstones were replaced by tarmac, but it would not be financially viable to replace all the flagstones across the City. In some areas, where cars park two wheels on the pavement, the row of flagstones nearest the kerb had been replaced with tarmac.

·  Root encroachment was an issue in some areas. The team worked with the tree inspector to see if the roots could be removed. Sometimes a kerb lift would be installed around tree roots to future proof the work. In other cases, areas around the tree were left open or tarmaced, or a resin based solution, which were flexible and could accommodate the growth of the roots were used.

·  In terms of safety, the system used to prioritise the work is objective and based on the data collected.

·  Different areas of the City look different dependent on when the neighbourhoods were built. In terms of making neighbourhoods more liveable, then one would need to look at other parameters as well regarding maintenance work.

·  Most of Coventry’s evolved roads are built on a poor subbase. If they fail, they need to be reconstructed which involves taking the ground back down by around 1 meter. A full reconstruction of a short road in the City would use 20% of the annual maintenance budget.

·  The strategy is to do repairs as efficiently as possible.

·  Concerns were raised about the quality to reinstatement works by utility companies.

·  Notifications from Councillors and the public inform the data on which repairs and maintenance are prioritised and as a result Highways Inspectors visit sites when concerns are raised about defects.

·  Unadopted roads are not the Council’s responsibility. There were processes where the owners can be force to do the work or where by the Council could undertake the works and recharge for them.

·  People illegally driving over pavements without a dropped kerb was managed by an enforcement officer.

·  Work was being done to see how people could be encouraged to install dropped kerbs. Where there were schemes being delivered in areas, residents were contacted and offered a discount on the work whilst teams were in the area.

·  The Council work with Legal to enforce illegal pavement crossings - however– people do have a common law right of access to their property so cannot unreasonably refuse. As a last resort the Council could do the crossing and then recharge occupant. Bollards have only been used where access was unsafe.

·  The policy limits the  width of a dropped kerb to 2.7m. which can go up to 3.6m where street narrow.

·  Concerns were raised about the impact of reduced parking on streets where too many people drop their kerbs.

·  Drives need to be permeable and the drainage system maintained.

The Scrutiny Board welcomed all the work undertaken in this regard.

RESOLVED that the Communities and Neighbourhoods Scrutiny Board (4):-

1)  Noted the briefing note and appendices

2)  Recommended that the Cabinet Member for City Services explore options to review dropped kerb pavement crossings. This is to include working with to make the application process easier and the works cost effective when timed with scheduled works in the programme.