Agenda item

The Cabinet Member is attending the committee to improve communications and to provide information of works in the local area.

Declarations of Interest: None

Officers attending: Cabinet Member (Highways) Councillor Colin Kemp

Petitions, Public Questions, Statements: Public question

Member Discussion – key points:

The Cabinet Member attended the committee to improve communications and to provide information of highways works in the local area.

1.    Members asked if the reporting of potholes online was now easier. Councillor Kemp informed Members that they have improved the descriptions of pot holes on the Surrey County Council web site but still needed to work on this.

2.    The Cabinet Member stated that he wished to give the committee an opportunity to understand 2018/19 highway schemes before the work starts. The Area Highways Manager will put together any comments that Members have on schemes. Councillor Kemp encouraged Members to start discussions around the 2019/20 programme so that they have an opportunity to input locally. He stated that the team isn’t able to achieve everything but that they do what they can within the envelope of the budget they have.  Councillor Kemp wished to make things work better for the public and consequently the Highways communications team would refresh the Highways works lists 2017/18 and 2018/19 every 3 months on the Surrey County Council website.

3.    Members were informed that there is approximately £160k Highways budget for each Local Committee. Every local member is allocated £7.5k Highways fund in order to empower them to work with parishes, boroughs/districts etc to deliver what is needed. Councillor Kemp encouraged Members to think out of the box about what they can do, for example by talking to other local members nearby to see if can both put money into solving a highways issue.  He informed Members that he is hoping to get the criteria on Members Highways funds out by the end of the week.  The Committee Members were encouraged to let their Area Highway Manager know if any issues come up and to speak to Cllr Kemp if needed. The Cabinet Member updated the committee that he had written to the Government about gaining match funding for highways repairs after the recent bad weather and asked Members to let the Highways team know of any new road issues.

4.    Councillor Angela Goodwin asked for update on 2017/18 Stoughton Rd scheme scheduled to take place in April during school holidays.

Action: the Highways Manager to come back to Councillor Goodwin with an update.

5.    Members asked how they can affect highway scheme priorities. The Committee were informed that roads are reviewed in terms of feedback from Highways Managers, how much traffic is on a particular road etc and then they are scored and prioritised to decide whether work should go ahead.  The Cabinet Member requested Members to feed into the system locally.

6.    Councillor Furniss stated that the A31 is majorly effected by potholes and is used by a lot of traffic however highways works to improve the road seems to get pushed back. Councillor Kemp asked for priorities about which areas on A31 need work.

7.    Councillor David Goodwin raised that re-surfacing of roads had taken place in his division that weren’t on the list of highways works.  The works are always described as patch work but it is a full resurfacing of the road.

Action: Councillor David Goodwin to e-mail Councillor Kemp the 3 roads where resurfacing has happened that weren’t on the list and then he would find out why this has occurred and respond back to the whole committee.

8.    Members asked whether there was work going on about breaking down silos, between the different highways teams.  The Cabinet Member is working to bring all the teams together, instil joined up thinking and have a mind set to do more work at the same time e.g. doing jetting at the same time as re-surfacing.

9.    Members requested that particular attention be given to potholes within 3 or 4 inches of the pavement to prevent cyclists falling off their bikes.

Public Question

10.  A member of the public asked if other applications can be used to report highways problems other than the Surrey County Council (SCC) web site.  The Cabinet Member said they had looked at other applications but this hadn’t been effective so any issues should be logged through the ‘Report it’ page on the SCC web site. The Chairman requested that any public questions be asked during the Open Forum session before the meeting or as part of the public question item.

Resolution:

The Local Committee (Guildford) commented on the information.

Reasons:

To update the committee on the highways works in the local area.