Agenda item

Report of the Acting Chief Officer for Highways, Infrastructure Development & Waste (HCW/17/35) on the allocation of highway maintenance funding in 2017/18, attached.

(Councillors Atkinson, Connett and Hannaford attended in accordance with Standing Order 25(2) and spoke to this item).

The Cabinet considered the Report of the Acting Chief Officer for Highways, Infrastructure Development & Waste (HCW/17/35) on the allocation of highway maintenance funding in 2017/18 by function, having regard to the experience of maintaining the network and its condition based on Highways Asset Management Plan principles and feedback from the Tough Choices consultation on the 2017/18 budget. The Report also contained proposals for a programme of works to be funded from the ‘ring-fenced’ on-street parking account for 2017/18.

The Cabinet Member emphasised that there was no reduction in the level of service provision in the current year: individual budgets having been adjusted to reflect experience in delivering highway maintenance policy and the efficiency savings from the re–procurement of highway contracts, including the contract to Skanska UK.  Similarly the street lighting budget had been reduced because of savings associated with the LED and part night lighting capital programmes. These efficiency savings would enable the Council to allocate £50,000 to the highway maintenance community enhancement fund to continue developing the nationally recognised innovative approach of inspiring communities to get involved in helping to maintain their local highways.

The Acting Chief Officer affirmed that the service was continually looking to secure additional funding from Government or external sources; noting that the possibility of submitting a bid to the National Productivity Infrastructure Fund for schemes to relieve congestion in Newton Abbot and/or Exeter was currently being explored.

The Acting Chief Officer acknowledged that previous reductions in revenue funding in highway maintenance had led to the development of the current strategy, driving efficiencies in the service, managing demand and encouraging and enabling community self-help.  

The Cabinet acknowledged the concerns expressed by Members attending in accordance with Standing Order 25 on the overall level of funding for highway maintenance, the impact of that on continuing work programmes and the effectiveness, in particular, of the Real Time Passenger Information System given the limited level of investment therein. 

The Head of Service’s Report referred to the updated Impact Assessment prepared for consideration of the 2017/18 budget which encompassed these programmes in order that Cabinet might, as part of its determination of the next steps, have full regard to the responsibilities placed upon it to exercise its Public Sector Equality Duty under s149 of the Equality Act 2010, where relevant. That Assessment recognised, as before, that individual schemes could make a considerable contribution to supporting equality through improving existing routes and surfaces; no unmanageable impacts having been identified.  

The matter having been debated and the options and/or alternatives and other relevant factors (e.g. financial, sustainability, carbon impact, risk management, equality and legal considerations and Public Health impact) set out in the Officer’s Report and/or referred to above having been considered:

It was MOVED by Councillor Hughes, SECONDED by Councillor Hart, and

RESOLVED

(a) that the allocations for highway maintenance for 2017/18 as set out in Appendix I to Report HCW/17/35 be approved;

(b) that the Acting Chief Officer for Highways, Infrastructure Development and Waste be authorised to amend the allocations within and between different work types to maintain overall the budget within the total allocation and to maximise the impact of the programme;

(c) that the On-street Parking Account programme for 2017/18 set out at Appendix II of Report HCW/17/35 be approved.

[NB: The Impact Assessment referred to above may be viewed alongside Minutes of this meeting and may also be available at:  http://new.devon.gov.uk/impact/].