Highways and Engineering Consultation Presentation

Context

• Huge national public deficit - £160 billion

• Massive reductions in public spending

• The Council must achieve savings of 10% or £15 million p.a. for 2011/12

• Reductions in capital spending and grants

• National spending review in October

Highways & Engineering Review

• Reduction in funding:

– £2.523m reduction revenue funding

– £4.120m reduction in capital funding

– £0.336m reduction in income

– £3.500m end of Transport Infrastructure Fund

• Proposals are currently out for consultation with staff, Trade Unions and service users

• The final report will be shared with the Executive Member in November

• Implementation from February 2011

The New Way of Working

• With reduced resources, we must refocus priorities to manage and understand the impact on service users. We therefore need to:

– Work smarter to provide new levels of inspections and cyclical maintenance to ensure we meet our duty of care

– Target our resources on carrying out reactive maintenance rather than planned maintenance

– Minimise the depreciation of the assets by targeting resources where they are most effective

Areas affected

• There will be a reduction in works programmes and staffing levels in the following areas:

– Management, administration and supervision

– Street lighting

– General highway maintenance

– Highway and footway reconstruction programmes

– Urgent repairs

– Bridges and structures

– Traffic management

– Highway drainage

– Asset management

What does this mean for Customers?

• Defects and customer reports will take longer to be inspected / investigated

• Highway and street lighting defects will take longer to be repaired

• Gullies will be cleaned less frequently

• There will be fewer highway improvement schemes:– Traffic management, safety and capacity improvements– Footway and carriageway resurfacing

However, revised timescales do not contravene any

statutory duties, recommendations or codes of practice

Proposed Levels of Service

Maintenance of Highways and Footways • Ensure all highways and footways are safe• Inspect all dangerous defects within 2 hours of identification and repair or make safe within 24 hours• Inspect and assess all reported defects within five working days• Category ‘A’ (emergencies) defects repaired within 24hrs• Category ‘B’ (classified Roads) defects repaired within 10 working days• Category ‘C’ (unclassified Roads) defects repaired within 28 working days• Category ‘T’ (Town Centre) defects repaired within 2 working days• Classified roads carriageways (all main roads) inspected on a monthly basis – (driven inspection)• Classified roads footways (all main roads) inspected on a 13 weekly basis – (walked inspection)• Town Centres - monthly• Link roads (estate feeder roads) inspected on a 13 weekly basis.• Unclassified roads (all side streets etc) inspected annually• Back streets inspected on an annual basis• Investigate highway related customer reports within 5 working days. • Clean all gullies on main roads at least once a year and minor roads at least once every 2 years

Highway Improvements• If we are resurfacing or making highway improvements in your street, write to you at least one week

beforehand, explaining the work to be done and informing you of contact details should you have any questions

Proposed Levels of ServiceStreet Lights and Signs • Make safe all dangerous defects within 4 hours and replace faulty lamps within 10 working days of

identification• Repair or replace all unsafe columns within 30 days• Undertake night inspections on main roads every 14 days• Electrically test all street lights and signs every seven years• Progress our new street lighting policy to reduce our carbon emissions and energy costs

Public Rights of Way (Public footpaths)• Inspect the Public Rights of Way networks over a three year cyclic period• Ensure all Public Rights of Way are adequately sign posted from the road• Publish details of where you can walk or ride - within available resources• Address anomalies in the rights of way definitive plans within available resources• Maintain rights of way plans

• Advise elected members on PROW issues and changes through the democratic reporting process

Flood Defence and Watercourses• Undertake an annual inspection of Council-owned watercourses• Undertake 3 monthly inspections of Council-owned watercourse trash screens• In the event of a flooding emergency we will support all emergency services and other agencies to ensure

public safety

Car Parks and Parking Enforcement• Ensure all car parks are safe for our customers• Repair pay and display ticket machine faults within 24 hours of being notified• Enforce parking restrictions throughout the Borough, fairly and appropriately• Accept informal challenges against parking tickets if they are received within 14 days of issue

Proposed Levels of ServiceRoad Safety• Endeavour to reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured on the roads in Bolton.• Investigate and respond efficiently to concerns about local road safety issues and highlight areas

of the road network for safety improvementTraffic Lights and Traffic Management• Forward all reports of traffic light problems within 2 working days to GM Urban Traffic Control• Investigate traffic problems in the town as part of our duty to maintain safe and consistent journeys

on our roads

Streetworks Management • Co-ordinate all major work planned by the Council, utility companies or others to minimise

disruption• Undertake statutory streetworks inspections in line with COP.• Process all highway licence applications (builders’ skips, scaffolding etc) within 24 hours

Winter Maintenance• Monitor road and weather conditions 24 hours a day between October and April• Provide a live update of our gritting actions on the Council’s website• Grit the road network and provide grit bins at pre-determined locations in compliance with our

policy• Ensure the general public can purchase grit from Heaton Fold, subject to stock levels

Have Your Say…

• You can participate in consultation by:– Submitting the online survey at www.bolton.gov.uk/highways – Completing a paper survey (available upon request by

phoning (01204) 331075)– Emailing highwaysandengineeringreview@bolton.gov.uk

• Consultation ends on 15th October 2010

• Comments and suggestions will inform the final report to the Executive Member in November

• The final outcome will be shared in late November