Agenda item

To receive a presentation from Diane Ware, Principal Technical Officer, Highways on forthcoming Highways Schemes.

To consider the report on Highways Schemes for the forthcoming year.

Diane Ware, Principal Technical Officer, Highways gave a presentation on the proposed Highways Schemes for 2019/2020.

The officer introduced herself and stated that she was involved in planning all major highways schemes. She was often out and about visiting areas and people so if you had a highways issue please feel free to contact her. Her contact details were:

Diane Ware, Principal Technical Officer, Highways

Telephone 01225 – 713298

Mobile – 07423 549984

Email: diane.ware@wiltshire.gov.uk

Wiltshire’s roads were in not too bad a condition in comparison to other places. Previously, when working out the 5 year plan and how much money to allocate each area they used the amount of road network in each area to calculate the budget. However, it had now been decided to allocate spend by need, so areas with the worst roads would get more money.

Approximately a third of Marlborough’s roads were rated red and amber. However they did not yet have full network coverage on the state of the roads, with some roads still to be assessed. There were 2 specialist land rovers driving the network with lasers and cameras to assess the state of the roads. They could also use the help of the public. If aware of potholes or an urgent issue that needed fixing then please report it on the My Wiltshire website or App, for other issues, contact Diane herself or report to CATG.

Diane spoke briefly about the budget for the next five years and the plans for Marlborough, the details of which could be found in the agenda pack. The lists of planned works could change depending on survey results and what was reported to them. The officer also stated that even though CATG meetings were not to consider substantive schemes she would be happy to attend some CATG meetings to discuss the area’s needs.

Wiltshire Council had a million pounds available for footways. The meeting was encouraged to let Martin Cook know about any footpath issues and about any reactive patching that was required.

There was separate money available for lining works, again let Martin Cook know of requirements. Wiltshire Council was also upgrading street lighting to LED lighting which in the long run would save money and give less light pollution.

In response to questions from the audience the officer stated that works carried out by contractors were checked after 12 months and 24 months. However if the work was found to be faulty or sub-standard then the contractor would be liable.

Yellow lines were checked and renewed. Parking enforcement officers reported flaws in yellow lines and people could also report them on the My Wiltshire App.

The Chairman stated that white lines were an issue for a lot of parishes, lists had been reported to Wiltshire Council, however as the contractors were from out of the county it took a long time to get them in to do the work. He asked if there were there any plans to bring white lining in house. The officer stated that yes in the future they were driving to bring a lot of work, such as white lining, in house. Engineers were being mentored to take on the work of consultants and contractors, however it might be 5 or 6 years for this to come to fruition.

Cllr Davies asked if when the A4 Salisbury road was worked on, they could modify the white lines, for example a visual narrowing of the road to help reduce speed, as the parish council had a lot of concerns regarding speeding there. The officer advised to report this to her or Martin for action.

The board considered the  recommendations in the report and it was:

Resolved

To:

(i) Welcome the road surfacing work and repairs carried out in 2018/19 and note the improvement in the overall condition of Wiltshire’s roads in recent years, but acknowledge that further investment is still required.

(ii) Approves the highway maintenance scheme list for 2019/20 prepared for the Area Board.

(iii) Note the new provisional five year programme, which will reviewed annually to ensure best value for money and whole life costing for the highways asset.

The meeting was adjourned at 7.57pm. The meeting reconvened at 8.02pm.