Agenda item

The report details a review of the City of York Council Gulley Management Strategy and asks the Executive Member to consider the proposed gulley cleansing programme and agree a further programme of work to improve the gulley management service.

Resolved: 

(i)           That the proposed gulley cleansing programme set out in paragraphs 6 and 11 to 15 of the report be agreed.

(ii)          That the following locations be added to the current drainage investigations list (Annex 1):

·        Milner Street back lane

·        Bone Dike, Strensall

·        Foxwood Lane area for previous surface water/foul water drainage

·        Constantine Avenue

·        Rosemary Court

(iii)        That a further programme of work as set out in paragraph 16 of the report be agreed with the following additions:

·        Development of a scheme to gain access to gullies in areas which had consistent on-street parking via temporary restrictions to be in conjunction with other Pride in York street maintenance services.

·        Investigate regular reporting of the number of requests for reactive cleaning of gullies, and development of systems to identify locations where repeated requests were being made which could indicate the need for further investigations.

iv)  That the connecting streets, identified via the Environment Agency flood maps, be added to the current list of streets (or parts of) that are theoretically at risk of surface water flooding.

Reason: To improve the management of York’s gulley assets.

The Executive Member considered a report that detailed a review of the City of York Council Gulley Management Strategy.

Officers gave an update and confirmed that:

·        the review of the gulley management service was carried out to ensure all gullies were proactively cleansed and to create a risk based programme linked to highway drainage needs and surface water flood risk factors.

·        under the current gulley cleansing service all assets on the gritting route were cleansed once a year in addition to any reported defects that were cleansed reactively. 

·        work had been carried out to identify the additional threat on the highway network associated with surface water flood risks. There were 1200 gullies linked with these locations that would be cleansed annually.

·        All other assets would be cleansed on an 8 year cycle, although this could be reduced if additional funding was granted.

The Executive Member agreed that the connecting roads to those streets that had been recognised via the Environment Agency Flood Maps, as being theoretically at risk of surface water flooding, should also be cleansed to reduce any surface water drainage issues in those areas and he asked officers to also investigate the current drainage issues in:

·        Milner Street, (back lane)

·        Bone Dike, Strensall

·        Foxwood Lane

·        Constantine Avenue and

·        Rosemary Court

The Executive Member thanked officers for the work done on resolving the issues on Acomb Green and in Green Lane and welcomed a wider review update at a future meeting that would identify an effective and efficient service based upon ongoing asset management work and linkages with partner authorities.

He also agreed to a development of a scheme to gain access to gullies in areas which had consistent on-street parking and requested an update on this and the development of a system to identify locations that received a number of requests for reactive cleaning of gullies, which could indicate the need for further investigations.

Resolved: 

(i)           That the proposed gulley cleansing programme set out in paragraphs 6, and 11 to 15 of the report be agreed.

(ii)          That the following locations be added to the current drainage investigations list (Annex 1):

·        Milner Street, back lane

·        Bone Dike, Strensall

·        Foxwood Lane area for previous surface water/foul water drainage

·        Constantine Avenue

·        Rosemary Court

(iii)        That in Annex 1 Eastfield Road in Haxby be corrected to Eastfield Avenue, Haxby.

(iv)        That a further programme of work as set out in paragraph 16 of the report be agreed with the following additions:

·        Development of a scheme to gain access to gullies in areas which had consistent on-street parking via temporary restrictions to be in conjunction with other Pride in York street maintenance services.

·        Investigate regular reporting of the number of requests for reactive cleaning of gullies, and development of systems to identify locations where repeated requests were being made which could indicate the need for further investigations.

(v)         That the connecting streets, identified via the Environment  Agency flood maps, be added to the current list of streets (or parts of) that are theoretically at risk of surface water flooding.

(vi)        That an update report be brought to a future Environment Decision Session.

Reason: To improve the management of York’s gulley assets.