Issue - meetings

ES20063

Members were presented with the Riney Contract Performance Report which provided an update regarding the performance of the Council’s Highways Contractor during the previous 12 months. 

Chris Moore (Managing Director) and Luke McFarlane (Contracts Director) attended to represent Riney. 

The Assistant Director for Highways informed Members that the contract had been awarded in July 2018 for major and minor works. The Committee had previously scrutinised Riney’s performance in November 2019. 

It was noted that all planned works, including the capital programme, street lighting improvements and traffic schemes, were suspended during the initial Covid-19 lockdown period, and did not recommence until early September. This caused a delay in the completion of certain projects.

Although Riney attended to emergencies and urgent highway repairs during the Pandemic, the size and volume of works completed were limited due to social distancing restrictions. 

Riney had now completed the capital programme and continued to make good progress with other traffic improvement projects as part of the annual LIP programme.

A Member raised the issue that outside of Biggin Hill Airport, there were  9 lights on the main road that had been in a state of dis-repair for 9 months. She asked that issues not be closed on FIXMYSTREET until they were definitely fixed and closed. Riney promised to look into the matter and repair the broken lights. Riney explained how they undertook regular nightly inspections of street lights to see what needed to be repaired, and they would endeavour to repair lights on the night of the inspection if possible.

The Assistant Director for Highways stated that every lamp column was inspected monthly and this included both main roads and cul de sacs. The Member responded that this should mean that lamps were not left in dis-repair for months. 

An explanation was provided by Riney concerning how the waste from road maintenance was segregated and re-cycled so that it could be re-used within the industry.

The Chairman asked for more information regarding warm and cold tarmac, and Riney provided an update concerning this. The Chairman asked if warm tarmac would be required to be replaced more frequently. The Chairman asked what Riney was looking to do in terms of sustainability and in providing a clean and green borough.

Riney responded that there was an additive mixed with the warm tarmac which would make it just as effective as cold tarmac. In any case, they would be responsible for any maintenance that was required subsequently. Riney was seeking to reduce their carbon footprint by modifying their vehicle fleet and using electric power for their small vans. They were also seeking to use hydrogen power for their larger vehicles in the future when the market was ready. 

The Chairman introduced Cllr Nicholas Bennett who wanted to address Riney concerning traffic management issues and delayed repairs in the West Wickham constituency. Cllr Bennett asked a question with respect to Pickhurst Lane, where there had been flooding that had taken four weeks to resolve. He asked why this had  ...  view the full minutes text for item 86