Issue - meetings

Purpose of report:

To share details of the Cabinet Members’ priority areas of work including strategy and policy developments and provide an overview of the budget position and performance of services within his/her portfolio.

Cabinet Member for Communities Update – Report to follow

Witnesses:

Matt Furniss, Cabinet Member for Transport

Natalie Bramhall, Cabinet Member for Environment and Climate Change

Denise Turner-Stewart, Cabinet Member for Communities

Katie Stewart, Executive Director – Environment, Transport and Infrastructure

Steve Owen-Hughes, Chief Fire Officer and Head of Surrey Community Protection Group

Key points raised during the discussion:

CABINET MEMBER FOR TRANSPORT

1. The Cabinet Member was asked to provide additional information on the streetlight private finance initiative (PFI) renegotiation. The Cabinet Member stated that negotiations had been underway for the last year and LED roll out was proceeding, after which a discussion on refinancing would take place. The Cabinet Member stated that this was scheduled to be discussed at the next cabinet meeting.

2. The Chairman queried how much of the first tranche of government funding for active travel had been spent or allocated. The Cabinet Member stated that twenty of the twenty-three tranche one schemes had been delivered and the remaining three would be completed by the end of September 2020. Some schemes had been withdrawn and this was largely due to lack of support from divisional Members. This had been anticipated and alternative schemes were in place to replace them. All tranche one schemes and all proposed tranche two schemes had been uploaded on the Council’s Commonplace transport map. The Department for Transport would confirm tranche two funding at the end of the month.

3. A Member remarked that there had been good public engagement with Active Travel and asked how public responses would be integrated into the council’s Active Travel response to COVID-19. The Cabinet Member stated the top one hundred public comments on the Surrey COVID transport website that received the most support from other residents and were deemed viable by the Council were put on the  Commonplace transport map. Active Travel would be a rolling programme of which public engagement was an ongoing component.

4. A Member asked for further information on the timescales for new road surface trials. The Cabinet Member informed the committee that the previous two trials had been a hydroblasting trial - using water to remove shiny elements from a road surface to improve surface grip – and an oil emulsion trial – an alternative to surface dressing. More recent trialling had been on plastic pellets in utility reinstatements trial, however there was a concern that there was a lack of understanding on the long-term performance of plastic. In the coming months, there would be an alternative road marking trial with the aim of reducing use of microplastics. A new thermal patching method had been successfully trialled on one of the worst areas of potholes in the county; it would also be trialled as a reactive treatment. Trial sites would be returned to in 12- and 24-month periods for monitoring purposes. The Cabinet Member stated that Members were informed of progress within updates at full council.

5. A Member asked whether more electric vehicle charging points could be installed in areas which were accessible to all Surrey residents. The Cabinet Member stated that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 27