Agenda item

This report seeks approval of a programme of highway works for Runnymede funded from the Joint Committee’s delegated capital and revenue budgets.

Recommendations:

The Joint Committee (Runnymede):

General

(i) Noted that the Joint Committee’s devolved highways budget for capital works in 2022/23 is £537,034.

(ii) Agreed that the devolved capital budget for highway works be used to progress both capital improvement schemes and member capital allocation as detailed in section 1.

(iii) Authorised that the Highway Engagement & Commissioning Manager in consultation with county members to be able to reallocate budget to reserve schemes should there be a need to change the programme.

(iv) Authorised that the Highways Engagement and Commissioning Manager in consultation with county members, be able to allocate any additional funding for schemes, in accordance with any guidance issued surrounding that funding.

Capital Improvement Schemes

(v) Agreed that the capital improvement schemes allocation for Runnymede be used to progress the Major Integrated Transport Schemes (ITS) programme set out in Annex 1.

(vi) Authorised that the Highways Engagement and Commissioning Manager be able to vire money between the schemes agreed in Annex 1, if required.

(vii) Agreed that the Highways Engagement and Commissioning Manager, in line with the Scheme of Delegation, is able to progress any scheme from the Major Integrated Transport Schemes programme, including consultation and statutory advertisement that may be required under the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, for completion of those schemes. Where it is agreed that a scheme will not be progressed, this will be reported back to the appropriate county member.

Member Capital Allocation

(viii) Noted that £50,000 per divisional member is allocated, and up to £15,000 could be allocated to minor ITS, or all £50,000 on capital maintenance (recommended option). The schemes are to be agreed by county members in consultation with the Stakeholder Engagement Officer.

Revenue Maintenance

(ix) Noted that the members will continue to receive a Member Local Highways Fund (revenue) allocation of £7,500 per county member to address highway issues in their division; and

(x) Agreed that revenue works are to be managed by the Highway Maintenance team on behalf of and in consultation with county members.

Reasons for recommendations:

To agree a programme of highways works in Runnymede for 2022/23, funded from budgets available to enable schemes and works to progress.

Declarations of Interest: None.

Officer in attendance: Jason Gosden, Senior Traffic Engineer, SCC

Petitions, Public Questions/Statements: None

Member discussion – key points:

The Senior Engineer outlined the 2022/23 budget and how it is split between the proposed ITS schemes, the Divisional Member capital allocation and the Divisional Member revenue allocation.

The deadline for agreement of proposed projects funded by the Member capital allocation is 16 May.

The deadline for agreeing proposals that would be funded by the Member revenue allocation is 16 October 2022.

There was concern that the short deadline for Member capital allocation agreements might not allow sufficient time to provide a considered list of works covering the full allocation. The Senior Engineer explained that the deadline had been set so the work requested by all the Members can be coordinated and planned, and confirmed that it would not be possible to add unspent capital allocation to the Member revenue allocation. He offered to meet Cllr Lewis (Woodham and New Haw) separately to discuss his concerns in more detail.

Larger schemes requiring more funding can be put forward to the county-wide Horizon scheme. Information on how the scheme operates and how Borough members can access it will be circulated to committee members; in the meantime, they were referred to the Horizon map on the SCC website, which includes information about past, present and future works.

It was noted that the Stakeholder Engagement Officer has been in touch with Members to discuss local priorities for schemes and Members thanked her for her input and support so far.

Cllr Prescot (Englefield Green West and RBC Leader) expressed his concern over the level of consultation and joint agreement between the county and borough councils over the new arrangements for managing the highways executive functions. He confirmed that he had written to the county council on the matter and was awaiting a reply.

Members discussed possible topics that the Joint Committee could focus on in the future, including:

· strategic housing

· climate change

· EV charging points

· strategic infrastructure

· town centre hubs

· funding flows

· the River Thames Scheme

· strategic bus route planning

· the use of Joint Committee working groups

· closer working in areas where SCC controls funding for projects but RBC carries out implementation

An informal meeting would be scheduled in September, when these and other ideas would be discussed with a view to establishing priority areas for the committee to work on.

The chairman stressed the importance of discussion between division and ward members particularly in relation to recommendations (iv) and (viii) below; the divisional members on the committee agreed.

Resolved