Agenda item

Parvis Khansari, Associate Director, will present the Local Highways Investment Fund report which includes a list of proposed highway maintenance schemes for 2014/15 which the Board is asked to agree for implementation.

The Chairman welcomed Cllr Philip Whitehead, Portfolio Holder Highways Contract, and Jim Bailey, Principal Highways Engineer, to the meeting to present the report on the local highways investment fund.

The presentation included that Wiltshire Council would be investing £21m annually on highways maintenance over the next 6 years, which was a significant increase in investment.

All roads in Wiltshire were assessed on an annual basis to formulate a list of sites to be repaired on a year on year basis.  Appendix 1 of the agenda included details of the list of proposed repairs for 2014/15 which the Board were asked to approve.

Cllr Whitehead confirmed that Appendix 1 showed the work scheduled for 2014/15 but that Appendix 2 and 3 of the report gave details of the known roads requiring attention and requested that the Board may want to look at this list to help shape future priorities.

Cllr Whitehead confirmed that a significant concern on roads was skid resistance and that the works highlighted in yellow were prioritised due to this.

Cllr Caswill recognised the difficulties in altering the list for the current year but proposed that the CATG be used to review the list provided for future works.

The weather conditions over the winter had increased reported highways faults from 3,000 per month to 5,500 per month since December. 

Concern was raised over the quality of the work done to date noting that some repairs made already required additional work.  Cllr Whitehead confirmed that the weather conditions over the winter period had destabilised temporary works which under normal circumstances would have remained until resurfacing works were undertaken.

The Board expressed concern that it was unaware of the criteria used to identify the list for 2014/15, the specific funding available for the community area and the time given to fully consider the list and decide on priorities.

The Board considered whether to delegate the review on this year’s list to the CATG to propose a list of priorities for the Board to agree.  Cllr Whitehead indicated that it would be difficult to amend the list for 2014/15 without delayed planned works for the year.

Clarification was made that it had been planned for the list of works for 2014/15 to be brought to be board at the end of 2013 but the extreme weather conditions over the winter period had understandably diverted resources away from the planned presentation to the Boards.

Following debate the Board agreed to endorse the list of proposed highway maintenance schemes for 2014/15.  The Board would give further consideration to the list of future schemes provided for 2015/16.

Before moving to the next item, a DVD was handed to the Chairman by a member of the public on dropped kerbs.  The CAM received contact details for the member of the public who would be contacted after the meeting.

Decision:

The Chippenham Area Board endorsed the list of proposed highway maintenance schemes for 2014/15 and would give further consideration to the list of future schemes provided for 2015/16.