Agenda item
Highways Maintenance
Richard White, Assistant Director of Neighbourhood Services wil talk about road and footpath maintenance.
Minutes:
5. Highways Maintenance
Richard White informed residents on the role of the department, the service area and the Winter Maintenance policy.
5.1 The department has responsibility for waste services, building and school cleaning, Neighbourhood Pride Services, Fleet, environmental enforcement, car parking, building maintenance and highway maintenance
5.2 Repairs to the 8000 Council owned houses totalled 50,000 last year.
5.3 Highway Maintenance consists of carriageway surfacing, footway reconstruction, basic maintenance, street lighting, gully cleaning, winter maintenance, blacksmiths, pest control, flooding/warping, verge maintenance, highways trees, road lining/anti skid and street signs.
5.4 The aim of highway maintenance is to keep roads safe to use. All roads and footpaths are subject to an annual inspection and work is prioritised around the city.
5.5 Basic maintenance jobs totals over 200 per week.
5.6 There are 70 frontline operatives.
5.7 There are 17,700 council streetlights in York, serviced by AMEY
5.8 Warping is removal of silt after flooding incidents.
5.9 York has recently suffered 20 days of bad weather, resulting in
5.9.1 4,200 t of salt and grit used
5.9.2 Temperatures reached –10°C
5.9.3 Damage to flagstones city wide
5.10 The Winter Maintenance Policy is online and is subject to review
5.11 320km of road was gritted during the bad weather, the is 44% of the network a high standard when compared nation wide.
5.12 15km of footpaths received gritting, concentrating on shopping streets and the city centre.
5.13 Gritting is restricted due to staffing limits and financial.
5.14 The winter policy is well suited but a review of dealing with prolonged periods of bad weather is planned.
5.15 Complaints during the 20 day period were about lack of salt bins, lack of footpath gritting, lack of gritting on secondary routes and cycle paths.
5.16 Additional work is being carried out to repair the pothole damage due to the bad weather. Staff has been drafted in for the last two weekends and additional funding has been applied for from the government.
Residents were given the opportunity to ask questions, the follow were asked.
a) Will paths that have been gritted now be swept? This is an issue but due to staff limitations it is impossible to sweep each street, over time the grit will be deposited in the gullies which will be swept.
b) Does clearing the path outside your house mean you are liable? This is yet to be tested in courts, but if you have made your best effort to clear ice down to the path surface it should be ok. If you use water to melt the ice and it then freezes you could open yourself up to being sued.
c) Is the tarmac on Lendal Bridge permanent? No it is a temporary measure as the flagstones have lifted with the ice, it will be repaired in the next financial year. Flags will be relayed as it is a conservation area.
d) Can’t people on the dole clear snow? This is likely to come about, using community payback.
e) Is the street lighting on Summerfield Road safe as one fell down not long ago? They are all subject to structural tests and are safe.
f) Who deals with blocked foul water? Yorkshire water, have ownership of all drains sewers and fresh water. City of York look after the gullies. Private clearances can be arranged through the council for a charge of £90.
g) Does grit block the drains? The salt used dissolves, the grit get removed during gully sweeping or gets washed away.
h) How do we report pot holes? By phoning 551551
At this point it was raised that due to gritting policy claims for damage to vehicles or people are low in the city of York. Meaning less money is spent on claims.