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
- 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.
- 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 Some schemes had been withdrawn and this was largely due to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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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 ...
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