Agenda item - HIGHWAYS' UPDATE REPORT

This report sets out the progress on highways’ schemes in Mole Valley and seeks approval to grant delegated authority to respond to consultation feed back, to the Leatherhead Major Schemes Task Group.

The Local Committee (Mole Valley) agreed to:

(i) Note the contents of the report

And resolved to agree to

(ii) Authorise the Area Team Manager in consultation with the Chairman and Vice Chairman to decide on those schemes to include within the Mole Valley Draft Integrated Transport Scheme (ITS) Programme 2017/18 – 2018/19 during the Informal Local Committee meeting to be held after the Formal Local Committee meeting on 16^th November 2016; and

(iii) Delegate authority to the Transport and Travel Group Manager, in consultation with the Leatherhead Major Schemes Task Group, to respond to the feedback received from the Transform Leatherhead consultation.

(iv) Authorise the Area Team Manager in consultation with the Chairman and Vice Chairman to finalise the list of local priority schemes for inclusion in the Horizon 2 Roads Major Maintenance Programme (HRMM) by 31^st January 2017, following consideration of the selection of schemes under the influence of the Local Committee at the informal Local Committee meeting to be held after the Formal Local Committee meeting on 16^th November 2016.

Reasons for Recommendations:

To update the Local Committee on, the progress of the highway works programme in Mole Valley, the Dorking STP, Leatherhead STP, A24 Resilience Scheme and customer enquiries.

The timescales indicated by the LEP will require some detailed design work to be conducted before 31 March 2017. This will require decisions to be made about the consultation feedback and the design specification of the scheme in January, which is in advance of the committee’s next meeting on 1 March.

To be able to pass to the Asset Planning Team an agreed list of schemes for the HRMM programme by the deadline of 31^st January 2017.

No declarations of interest received.

Officers present:

Zena Curry, Area Highways Manager

Annie-Marie Hannam, Senior Traffic Engineer

Bronwen Chinien, Environment Policy Manager

The Area Highways Manager directed members to the revised report (tabled and attached) and drew their attention to the amended recommendation at (iii) and the additional recommendation at (iv).

Members’ discussion

1. Concerns were raised that following the redesign, traffic entering Station Approach to go to Lincoln Road from the A24 was blocking the road and that the situation might worsen once Federated House is developed. The Area Highways Manager confirmed this issue had not been highlighted in the road safety audit and that it would have to be reassessed once a planning application is submitted.

2. Some members expressed concern about the suitability of the variable message signs (VMS) (2.17 Wider Network Benefits Scheme) being sited on rural roads and wanted to make sure that parish councils would be consulted on locations. The Area Highways Manager acknowledged that this use of technology was controversial but that the Traffic and Streetworks Manager would try and accommodate requests on this issue. She also clarified that the overall purpose of the scheme was to facilitate free-flowing traffic and that no data would be stored.

District Councillor Chris Hunt joined the meeting.

3. In response to queries on outstanding projects in Dorking the Senior Highways Engineer confirmed that phase 3 of the extension to the street lighting on A24 (item 1 annex 2) would be completed by the end of the current financial year and that a feasibility study had been commissioned for Dene Street (contraflow cycleway (item 4 annex 2). A report would come to the March meeting of the local committee.

4. The Environment Policy Manager updated the committee on a development regarding funding of the Leatherhead Sustainable Transport Project (STP) (2.9 of the report) that had arisen since the report had been written. Due to the latest financial position of the county council, the county council can no longer contribute match funding for this project. At the same time, the Coast to Capital LEP has advised that the level of match funding has reduced from 25% to 15% of total scheme cost. Moving forward, the county council will work closely with the district council, with the objective of securing the required match funding to enable a funding application to be submitted. The consultation process will continue however and will feed into the task group (see item 6).

The revised recommendations were agreed.