Agenda item

Report of the Head of Highways, Capital Development & Waste (HCW/16/31) on progress with 2015/16 programmes and approval of schemes and proposed programmes for capital funding of highway maintenance programmes in 2016/17, attached.

Electoral Division(s): All

(Councillors Connett, Julian, Owen and Westlake attended in accordance with Standing Order 25(2) and spoke to this item).

The Cabinet considered the Report of the Head of Highways, Capital Development & Waste (HCW/16/31) on progress with 2015/16 programmes and approval of schemes and proposed programmes for capital funding of highway maintenance programmes in 2016/17.

The Cabinet noted that the capital funding settlement for 2016/17 was based on a national formula for allocating Local Highway Maintenance funding allocations divided between a needs formula, an incentive formula and a Challenge Fund; although the overall levels of funding to Council’s generally fell well short of the amount needed to maintain all elements of the highway in a steady state and the allocation for Devon represented only 54% of the funding required to keep the highway assets in their current condition.

The County Council had been allocated £38,785,000 in 2016/17 for the needs based formula based on all highway features, not just carriageway structural maintenance. The ‘incentive formula’ allocation was not yet known but could secure an additional £2,350,000. The Council had to date also been allocated £5,079,000 under the Challenge Fund for street lighting. The settlement for 2017/18 had been confirmed at £37.610m with an indicative allocation of £34.042m for each of the following 3 years.

The Head of Service’s Report recommended the adoption of a programme which had been  designed to make best use of the available financial resources using the Council’s approved Asset Management approach; recognising also that any reduction in the programme would further compromise the County Council's ability to maintain the network in a reasonably safe condition and work towards the objectives of the Council's Strategic Plan. 

The Cabinet Member for Highways Management & Flood Prevention also referred to the recent announcement by Government of an additional allocation to the Council of  just under £2,000,000 from its Pothole Action Fund, to be targeted at sections of minor road with ‘high frequency pothole formation’.  This allocation while clearly not meeting all of the demands on the Service, would nonetheless be a welcome boost to the capital programme.

The Head of Service’s Report also referred to the ‘Budget 2016/17 Impact Assessment’, which had previously been considered by and taken into account by the Cabinet and County Council in determining the Budget for 2016/17 noting also that individual schemes – which could make a considerable contribution to supporting equality through improving the network - would be fully assessed as would the environmental aspects of any proposals through the separate Environmental Impact Assessment process.

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

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

RESOLVED

(a) that progress with 2015/16 capital funded highway maintenance schemes detailed in Appendices I and II to Report HCW/16/31 be noted;

(b) that approval be given to the capital funded highway maintenance programmes for 2016/17 as set out in Appendices III and IV to Report HCW/16/31;

(c) that the allocation of the available budget to schemes be determined by the Head of Highways, Capital Development and Waste in accordance with the Highways Asset Management Plan, within the limits of the approved budget;

(d) that the Head of Highways, Capital Development & Waste be authorised to amend the programme to maximise its impact within agreed policy guidelines and in the case of any changes to individual schemes exceeding £25,000 to exercise that authority only in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Highway Management & Flood Prevention.

[NB: The Impact Assessment referred to above is available at:  http://new.devon.gov.uk/impact/]