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Meeting: 13/05/2020 - Cabinet (Item 502)

502 County Road Highway Maintenance Revenue Budget and On-street Parking Account 2020/21 pdf icon PDF 169 KB

Report of the Chief Officer for Highways, Infrastructure Development and Waste (HIW/20/20) seeking approval of the County Road Highway Maintenance Revenue Budget and On Street Parking Account, attached.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

(Councillors Biederman, Connett, Dewhirst, Hannaford and Greenslade attended remotely in accordance with Standing Order 25(2) and the Local Authorities and Police and Crime Panels (Coronavirus) (Flexibility of Local Authority and Police and Crime Panel Meetings) (England and Wales) Regulations 2020 and spoke to this item).

 

The Cabinet considered the Report of the Chief Officer for Highways, Infrastructure Development and Waste (HIW/20/20) seeking approval of the County Road Highway Maintenance Revenue Budget and On Street Parking Account, circulated prior to the meeting in accordance with regulation 7(4) of the Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Meetings and Access to Information) (England) Regulations 2012.

 

The Cabinet Member for Highway Management commented that the Coronavirus pandemic was having an impact on the highway revenue programme, having reduced the availability of resources, with both quarries and contractors in the supply chain closing or reducing their activities. He also added that the revenue budget had been increased to include an additional £2m to address drainage related issues.

 

The Report highlighted that revenue funded works consisted of three types of maintenance, being reactive (for example, repairs to safety defects, emergency response, flooding, overhanging vegetation, which, if neglected, would pose a potential danger to road users). Secondly, there was routine maintenance and thirdly, cyclic maintenance (such as gully emptying, grass cutting, drainage pipes, ditch cleaning etc) carried out to a defined frequency.

 

The highway maintenance base budget had been set at £26,079,000, comprising £23,879,000 in the Highways Service budget and £2,200,000 funded from the On-street Parking account. The detailed allocations were set out in Appendix I to the Report.

 

The Cabinet also noted the unprecedented level of wet weather towards the latter part of 2019 and early 2020 and a succession of storms that had brought destructive high winds, resulting in damage across the network.

 

The Strategy used a framework to manage the highway network as described in the Highway

Infrastructure Asset Management Policy (HIAMP). With a total asset under CIPFA guidance

valued at £13.3 billion (Gross Replacement Cost) of which carriageways alone were valued at

£11.1 billion, the highway network was the County’s most valuable and important public asset.

 

Since April 2019 all publicly reported potholes were visited and assessed to allow for serviceability defects (as well as safety defects) to be addressed. There was also an increased use of the Dragon Patcher as well as the work of District and Parish Council’s in delivering services such as grass and hedge cutting and the treatment of weeds. There was also an increase in issues with drainage and flooding, therefore improvements in system jetting and enhanced records would be used to understand the causes. The additional drainage allocation for the current financial year was welcomed to help address these matters.

 

In relation to On Street Parking, the costs of operating the on-street parking service was the first call on any income held. Any surplus had to be used in accordance with the eligibility criteria as set out in the legislation.  The Highways Maintenance budget included £2.2m for highways environmental  ...  view the full minutes text for item 502


Meeting: 10/04/2019 - Cabinet (Item 330)

330 County Road Highway Maintenance Revenue Budget and On-street Parking Account 2019/20 pdf icon PDF 197 KB

Report of the Chief Officer for Highways, Infrastructure Development and Waste (HIW/19/39) seeking approval of the County Road Highway Maintenance Revenue Budget and On Street Parking Account, attached.

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

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

 

The Cabinet considered the Report of the Chief Officer for Highways, Infrastructure Development and Waste (HIW/19/39) seeking approval of the County Road Highway Maintenance Revenue Budge and On Street Parking Account 2019/2020, circulated prior to the meeting in accordance with regulation 7(4) of the Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Meetings and Access to Information) (England) Regulations 2012.

 

It recommended the allocation of revenue highway maintenance funding for 2019/20 by maintenance function as well as a programme of work identified in accordance with the provisions of Traffic Management Act 2004, to be funded from the On-street Parking Account.

 

The revised Code of Practice, ‘Well Managed Highway Infrastructure’ came into force in October 2018 which moved highway authorities towards a more risk-based approach to maintenance. This approach was used in Devon on highway safety inspections and defects assessed on the level of risk based upon the likelihood to cause harm and the impact should harm occur.

 

Devon had a duty to maintain a road network of 8,025 miles (12,915 km) and the Report highlighted the three types of maintenance works undertaken. This was reactive repairs such as pot-hole filling, flooding issues, replacing road signs and markings, clearing overhanging vegetation or precautionary salting and snow clearance. Second was routine or cyclic maintenance such as gully emptying, grass cutting, cleaning and clearing of drainage pipes, ducts and channels and then, third, planned, programmed or structural maintenance such as resurfacing, reconstruction and surface treatments etc.

 

The Council revenue budget for 2019/20 the highway maintenance base budget had been set at £23,115,000 (£20,815,000 in the Highways service budget and £2,300,000 funded from the On-street Parking account) and was made up as follows.

 

·         Highway Maintenance £7,417,204

·         Bridges and Structures £483,719

·         Safety Reaction £6,058,970

·         Winter Maintenance, Emergencies & Depots £3,462,567

·         PROW £591,851

·         Street Lighting £4,104,000

·         TMC Fixed Overhead Charge £996,689

 

Detailed allocations by work function were given at Appendix I to the Report, based on Devon's asset management principles and experience of maintaining the network.

 

The Cabinet noted that the Strategy used a framework to manage the highway network as described in the Highway Infrastructure Asset Management Policy (HIAMP).  With a total asset (under CIPFA guidance) valued at £12.26 billion (Gross Replacement Cost), the highway network was the County’s most valuable public asset. The approach was aligned to three clear business plan objectives to drive efficient delivery of the service, mobilise community support and manage demand for highway services.

 

They further noted Devon’s transformation approach to ‘doing what matters’, how the service could make fundamental changes to provide better outcomes at a lower cost.  Partnership working was important and community, voluntary and private enterprises encouraged and supported to innovate and run services traditionally delivered by the Council.

 

In respect of the On-Street Parking Account, expenditure of the income was restricted by the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984.  The costs of operating the service was first and any remaining surplus used in accordance with  ...  view the full minutes text for item 330


Meeting: 11/04/2018 - Cabinet (Item 162)

162 County Road Highway Maintenance Revenue Budget and On Street Parking Account 2018/2019 pdf icon PDF 377 KB

Report of the Chief Officer for Highways, Infrastructure Development and Waste (HIW/18/21) on the County Road Highway Maintenance Revenue Budget and On Street Parking Account for 2018/2019, attached.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

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

 

The Cabinet considered the Report of the Chief Officer for Highways, Infrastructure Development and Waste (HIW/18/21) on the County Road Highway Maintenance Revenue Budget and On-street Parking Account for 2018/2019 circulated prior to the meeting in accordance with regulation 7(4) of the Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Meetings and Access to Information) (England) Regulations 2012.

 

This Report sets out the recommendations for spending the revenue budget for highway maintenance, including the additional spending of £6.5 million agreed at the County Council Budget meeting on the 15th February.  It recommended the allocation of revenue highway maintenance funding for 2018/19 by maintenance function and also approval for a programme of work identified in accordance with the provisions of Traffic Management Act 2004, to be funded from the On-street Parking Account.

 

Revenue funding for highway maintenance provided for the funding of reactive repairs and routine/cyclic maintenance. The need for structural repair of the network was assessed using an asset management, data led approach. 

 

The Council had been recognised by the DfT for developing new ways of working to help tackle the challenges, including innovative approaches to encouraging localism and inspiring communities to get involved in helping to maintain their local highway assets.

 

The revised Code of Practice Well Managed Highway Infrastructure had been published in October 2016 which was moving highway authorities towards a more risk based approach to its maintenance.  This approach, also used in Devon on highway safety inspections, meant a defect would be assessed for its level of risk based upon its likelihood to cause harm and the impact if such harm occurred.

 

The Report highlighted the three types of maintenance works essentially undertaken which related to the reactive repairs such as pot-hole filling, dealing with flooding, replacing road signs and markings, clearing overhanging vegetation or precautionary salting and snow clearance. Second was routine or cyclic maintenance such as gully emptying, grass cutting, cleaning and clearing of drainage pipes, ducts and channels and then planned, programmed or structural maintenance such as resurfacing, reconstruction and surface treatments etc.

 

The revenue budget for 2018/19 in respect of the highway maintenance base budget had been set at £23,061,000, comprising £20,761,000 in the Highways service budget and £2,300,000 funded from the On-street Parking account. An additional £6,500,000 had been agreed through the Budget Council meeting on 15 February 2018, bringing the total budget to £29,561,000.

 

The Cabinet Member for Highway Management reported that there was no reduction to the level of service provision, only adjustments made to individual budgets to reflect changes from the re–procurement of highway contracts and contractual adjustments due to inflationary increases.

 

Cabinet then noted that the service was under extreme pressure to deal with the impacts of historic Capital underfunding of highway structural maintenance and the effects of severe winter weather such as snow events, prolonged cold periods and flooding events.  With changes in climate and the potential for more extreme  ...  view the full minutes text for item 162


Meeting: 31/05/2017 - Cabinet (Item 6)

6 County Road Highway Maintenance Revenue Budget and On Street Parking Account 2017/18 pdf icon PDF 189 KB

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.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

(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  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6



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