Agenda item

Richard White (Assistant Director for Neighbourhood Services) will give a brief overview of Neighbourhood Services, Highways and winter maintenance.

5.1            Richard White (Assistant Director for Neighbourhood Services) gave an overview of the work undertaken by Neighbourhood Services (now part of  the Communities and Neighbourhoods directorate). He explained the following:

5.2            Highways Maintenance undertake work such as carriageway surfacing, street lighting, pest control, street signs and footway reconstruction.

5.3       They are also responsible for winter maintenance. This includes  gritting roads and footpaths.

5.4       Last winter was the worst for 30 years and included 20 days of snow and ice. 320 km of roads and 15 km of footpaths were gritted with 4,200 tonnes of salt being used.

5.5       As a result of these exceptional circumstances, there was a £450,000 overspend on the budget.

5.6       The department are reviewing the winter maintenance policy and would welcome any views and feedback from residents. You can contact them on 551551.

The key issues identified so far are:

• The location and availability of salt bins.
• Treatment of footpaths.
• Secondary routes: reviewing roads that are gritted.
• Cycle paths: identifying key routes which may be cleared.
• Pot holes: 7,000 potholes have been identified. The team are addressing those considered most dangerous first and are looking to have them all dealt with by the summer.

Residents raised the following questions and comments:

Q         Are Highways Maintenance responsible for gritting/salting steps?

A         Very few steps which they have responsibility for. They are mainly concerned with roads and footpaths.

Q         What about the steps on New Walk?

A         No, they are not responsible for those.

Q         There are some steps near cycle paths on the gritting list.

A         They won’t be routinely gritted, but could perhaps be done on request, or have a salt bin provided.

Q         Some people have been using the salt from salt bins on their driveways etc.

A         It is really for public footpaths and roads; not private property.

Q         It seems like there’s an imbalance; 320km of road gritted compared with just 15km of footpaths. Many elderly people were trapped in their homes due to the pavement conditions.

A         The authority can’t clear every road and pavement, so where do they stop? There is a policy which must be reasonably adhered to, but they will take comments on board.

Q            People don’t clear the snow and ice from the fronts of their houses for fear of being sued if somebody injures themselves walking past.

A            Nobody has been successfully sued for clearing the front of their house. The council cannot advise either way, but if a resident makes an honest effort to clear the pavement, then they are highly unlikely to be successfully prosecuted.

Q            Cycling paths are often quite treacherous with their gradients and curves.

A         Salt that is used to treat cycle and foot paths requires sufficient traffic to activate it, but often does not get this.

Q         The Millennium Bridge is a major route, but is not salted because it might damage the fabric of the bridge or the paint. Alternatives?

A            Unfortunately, the bridge was not built to carry gritters. There is, however, new machinery being trialled which may help.

Q         The raised white lines separating cyclists and pedestrians on some footpaths have now broken up.

A         This will be repaired, or replaced with flat lines depending on what the cycling officers request.

Q         Why are they raised?

A         To make them tactile for canes used by visually impaired people. Raised lines are the recommended standard.