Q123 – Traffic Signage I have asked the Highways Agency to provide further information with regard to the quote for £30,000 referred to by Stephen Barclay MP. The Agency has advised that warning signs are not normally provided for access off a trunk road. Their view, in this case, is that there are no safety or traffic management grounds for such a sign. The £30,000 quoted was therefore an estimate and more detailed work would be required to determine a more exact cost. Though the expectation would be that the eventual cost would be less, the Agency is not willing to commit to a lesser amount without further work, which incurs cost in itself. The basis for the quote is as follows:-

£12,000 for design costs (narrow verges both sides of the A47 and taking into account the static safety camera sited opposite the village hall);

£5,000 for traffic management (would require two nights to install – the first night for the concrete foundations and the second for the sign).

£5,000 for site visits, including Road Safety Audits.

£250 - £7,500 for materials I understand Stephen Barclay MP is meeting the Highways Agency’s Divisional Director and the Roads Minister, Mike Penning MP, next month. I hope that this will provide a way forward in this case. The Highways Agency is driving down costs across its business including; greater efficiencies in building major schemes, improved and more efficient incident response and lower costs in the traffic officer service; reducing expenditure on maintenance by at least 20%, and greater efficiency in back office functions and estates. By vigorously pursuing a number of cost reducing activities, average spend on maintaining the strategic road network over the four year spending review period to 2014/15 will be about £700million a year. This is down from an average of over £900million in previous years. This is being done without having to compromise on the safety of the network, and is being achieved through implementing new, more cost-efficient, contracts with its supply chain, and retro-fitting many aspects of these into existing contracts.