Agenda item

This report summarises progress with the Local Committee’s programme of Highways works for the current Financial Year 2017-18.

Preparations are underway to deliver the Local Committee’s agreed programme of Highways works for the Financial Year 2018-19.

The Council has delegated additional Highways revenue funding to the Local and Joint Committees over and above what had been expected for 2018-19. This additional funding will need to be allocated once the details have been confirmed.

A number of bids for CIL funding have been submitted to Elmbridge Borough Council, which if successful would enable the detailed design and construction of a number of Integrated Transport Schemes (ITS schemes), and two carriageway resurfacing schemes. Officers will update Committee once the outcome of these bids is known.

That the Local Committee [Elmbridge] agreed:

(i) To authorise the Area Highway Manager, in consultation with the Chairman and Vice Chairman, to draw funds from the original £370,000 parking surplus allocation to develop ITS schemes according to the needs of Committee’s ITS programme, up to a maximum of £370,000;

(ii) To authorise the Area Highway Manager, in consultation with the Chairman and Vice Chairman, to allocate the additional Highways revenue funding to suitable and beneficial activities and projects, once the details of additional funds have been confirmed;

(iii) Authorise the Area Highway Manager in consultation with the Chairman, Vice Chairman, and relevant Divisional Member(s) to undertake all necessary procedures to deliver the agreed programmes.

Reasons: Committee’s programme of Highways investment for 2018-19 was agreed by Committee in December 2017.

Previously allocated parking surplus funding needs to be tailored to the needs of Committee’s ITS programme.

To be able to invest the additional Highways revenue funding in year, it is essential to allocate funds to specific activities and projects as soon as possible.

Officers will update Committee when the outcome of the CIL bids is known.

Committee is asked to provide the necessary authorisation to deliver those programmes of work in consultation with the Chairman, Vice Chairman and relevant Divisional Member without the need to revert to the Committee as a whole.

Declarations of interest: Tim Oliver declared a personal interest in the crossing on Portsmouth Road as Chairman of the Governors of Esher College whose students may benefit.

Officers attending: Nick Healy, Area Highways Manager

Petitions, Public Questions/Statements: None

Member Discussion – key points

The Area Highway Manager reported that a number of bids had been submitted to Elmbridge Borough Council for funding via the Community Infrastructure Levy. The member panel had recommended £315k worth of bids for acceptance and the final decision would be made by the Cabinet on 14 March. Two bids for resurfacing had been deferred, the Chairman commented that these bids had been put forward unanimously by the Local Committee and he hoped that the Cabinet would agree to these bids in addition to those recommended for approval.

The Area Highways Manager reported that the County Council had agreed to provide additional funding to the Local Committee in 2018/19, an additional £1.4m to be divided equally between the 11 Committees and £7.5k per county member to be spend on local highway projects. The criteria for spending this funding are still being finalised, but he suggested that 80% of the additional funding could be spent on large scale patching and 20% on large scale vegetation work. Once the criteria are finalised, subject to agreement to this approach by the Committee, officers will look at the list of suggested potential schemes and prioritise them for discussion with the Chairman and Vice-Chairman. The team would work with individual members to discuss priorities for the additional £7.5k allocated to them.

Potential pedestrian crossing schemes were discussed. Crossings can sometimes disrupt traffic flow and increase congestion and the Committee will need to balance the needs of different highway users. Members felt that it would sometimes be beneficial to see speed data at these locations outside of peak times when speeds may increase and data on who may want to cross if it was safer to do so. In respect of the proposed crossing in Hersham the next stage is to look at the affect on traffic flows based on estimates of usage. This is expected to have a cost of around £2-3k. The Committee agreed that this would be useful.

Resolved: