Issue - meetings

The Corporate Director of Housing and Environment presented a report on proposals to invest a further £4.176m in a range of highway improvement projects during 2014/15. 

The Corporate Director advised that the Council had invested approximately £26m over the past four years in highway related projects.  The additional proposals for 2014/15 would encompass carriageway and footpath resurfacing works at non-principal roads in the Borough that had been assessed as being most in need of repair, street lighting replacement and bridge and culvert maintenance.  The Corporate Director also advised that the funding would include an additional £100,000 for road safety and traffic management projects, in response to a recommendation by the Safer and Stronger Communities Select Committee following its road safety scrutiny review.

Cabinet resolved:

(i)  To approve the inclusion in the 2014/15 Capital Programme of a one-year highways investment programme totalling £4.176m, to be funded through capital receipts (£3.976m) and Section 106 monies (£0.2m);

(ii)  To approve the funding profile investment of £2.408m to deliver priority highway maintenance works (carriageway and footpath resurfacing) primarily on the non-principal and unclassified roads as detailed in Appendix A to the report;

(iii)  To authorise the Corporate Director of Housing and Environment, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Environment, to vary the priority list if other roads deteriorate to such an extent as to be considered for inclusion during the course of the programme;

(iv)  To approve the funding profile investment of £1.418m to upgrade 810 life-expired concrete street lighting columns deemed structurally unsound, in order to meet health and safety standards;

(v)  To endorse the recommendation of the Safer and Stronger Communities Select Committee and allocate an additional £100,000 for road safety and traffic schemes; and

(vi)  To approve the allocation of £250,000 to carry out structural repairs and maintenance on all bridges and culverts to bring them up to standard.