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Agenda item

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.

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 conditions such events would remain a significant issue for the Service in the foreseeable future.

 

A copy of an updated overview of the Budget 2018-19 Equality Impact Assessment for all service areas hadbeen circulated previously and was available to all Members of the Council at:https://new.devon.gov.uk/impact/published/budget-impact-assessment-201819/

 

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 Chief 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 budget allocations for highway maintenance for 2018/19 as detailed in Appendix I of the Report (HIW/18/21), be approved;

 

(b) that authority to amend the allocations between different work types to maintain the budget within the total allocation and to maximise the impact of the maintenance programme be delegated to the Chief Officer for Highways, Infrastructure Development and Waste in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Highway Management; and

 

(c) that the programme funded from the On-street Parking Account for 2018/19, as set out in Appendix II of Report (HIW/18/21), also be approved.

 

[NB: The Impact Assessment referred to above may be viewed at: https://new.devon.gov.uk/impact/published/budget-impact-assessment-201819/].

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