Issue - meetings

Report ES18011

Following the Council decision on 12^th December 2016 to approve capital funding of £11.8m for investment in planned highway maintenance, Members considered future schemes of planned carriageway and footway maintenance, comprising Phase 4 of the investment programme. Works associated with the first three phases had progressed well and current commitments/expenditure at December 2017 totalled £6.52m.

Improving the condition of the borough’s non-principal and unclassified roads and footways would reduce reactive maintenance and enable annual revenue savings of £2.5m, totalling £12.5m over a five year period from 2017/18 (partly offset by an estimated £167k reduction in treasury management income over the period). 

Priorities for the initial phases were based on a condition survey completed in October 2015 and a further borough-wide assessment had recently been commissioned to identify carriageways and footways needing repair. The Phase 4 schemes (estimated cost value at £2.45m) were identified as highest priorities in the latest survey results. A further report proposed for March 2018 would seek approval for the project’s final phases.

Any necessary on-going maintenance would be funded from the routine and reactive highway maintenance budgets (revenue budgets). 

Cllr Tim Stevens (Farnborough and Crofton) highlighted that all Farnborough and Crofton Members supported proposed schemes in the ward.

As the current highway contacts now end in June 2018 (it had been necessary to change the procurement strategy and timescale of the new highway contracts), final phases of the proposed footway programme were likely to be carried over to the new contracts. As such, Members proposed that the footway works concerned be replaced with further carriageway works in the current phase to take advantage of existing contract rates (carriageway works being more expensive and quicker to complete than footway repairs). Funding could be diverted to carriageway works although the level of works would not be known until mid-April.

A list of Phase 5 carriageway/footway schemes was being compiled and it was intended to complete as much work as possible under the present contract. There was no major footpath problem in the borough but work was ongoing to identify structurally unsound footways. Any road highlighted by Members for repair would be inspected again and considered.

RESOLVED that the Environment Portfolio Holder be recommended to:

(1)  agree that, subject to (2) below, the schemes listed at Appendix A to Report ES18011 form the next phase of the Council’s investment programme of planned highway maintenance for 2017/19 to be undertaken by the Council’s existing highway term maintenance contractors;

(2)  agree that where any footway work at (1) above is likely to be carried over to the new highway contracts, this be replaced with further carriageway work to achieve best value under rates offered by the current contracts; and

(3)  as much work as possible under the investment programme (including Phase 5 and any further works) be undertaken before the start of the new highways contracts.