Issue - meetings

The Chair of the Property, Highways and Transport Select Committee, Councillor Burrows, presented the Committee’s report into Attaining Best Practice and Value for the Council’s Highways Resurfacing Activities, which was warmly received by the Cabinet. Councillor Burrows explained how the Committee’s review was focussed on value, upholding best practice and quality in highways works. He set out how the Committee had engaged in evidence gathering sessions with senior Council officers, external partners, contractors, and the Cabinet Member, and that two themes had emerged around engagement and communication, and promoting green initiatives and cost-effectiveness, which had provided practical recommendations to Cabinet. The Chair expressed gratitude to those who contributed their time and expertise and acknowledged the shared commitment to invest in the Borough’s highways and footways. 

RESOLVED:

That Cabinet:

1)    Welcomes the Select Committee’s report and its insights and findings, which seek to support and enhance the delivery of Highways resurfacing and maintenance across the Borough, taking a broad assessment of existing procedures, new technologies, methods, materials and scheduling possibilities to obtain best value and service for residents.

2)    Agrees to delegate decisions on taking forward the implementation of the Committee’s specific recommendations to the Cabinet Member for Property, Highways and Transport, in conjunction with officers.

SELECT COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATIONS:

Engagement and Communication

1)    To develop a standardised Highways Resurfacing response template for Members Enquiries, to include the reasoning behind the response, the scheduling of works and estimated timescales, or reasons why a timescale cannot be given.

2)    To endorse the principle of feedback from residents and Ward Councillors contributing to the process by which the Council assesses the condition of footways and roadways and their priority for repair.

3)    To ensure that information regarding planned major resurfacing works is transparent and available to the Ward Councillors and the public where possible.

4)    To seek to enhance communication with relevant authorities that manage prominent highways in the Borough (National Highways and Transport for London) regarding any deterioration of their network impacting Hillingdon’s residents.

5)    That the Council’s Highways, and Green Spaces Teams consult each other formally and frequently to ensure the issue of tree root protrusion on footways and roadways is mitigated effectively.

Promoting Green Initiatives and Cost Efficiencies

6)    That where possible, adopt and promote less energy intensive resurfacing techniques such as the recycling of materials and expanding trials using Warm Mixed Asphalt.

7)    Endorse the use of new resurfacing technologies and techniques including the new machine purchased for the delivery of reactive highways maintenance work.

8)    Support cost effective methods of repaving footways such as the move to tarmac where appropriate, rather than replacing all footways ‘like for like’.

9)    Encourage the early ordering of works and volume of works discounts offered by the Council’s Resurfacing Contractor.

Reasons for decision

Cabinet endorsed the report of the Committee which sought to support the Council’s highways resurfacing and maintenance across the Borough. The Cabinet Member for Property, Highways and Transport expressed his gratitude to the Committee for their diligent work and depth of review. He announced that the Council would be spending more on the maintenance and upkeep of the road network this year, acknowledging the vast area covered and to be maintained. The Cabinet Member noted the cyclical nature of the work, with winter and early spring negatively impacting the roads, and the rest of the year spent catching up. He emphasised the importance of getting good value and keeping a close eye on expenditure and welcomed the Committee’s report, particularly regarding the works and decisions around pavements, which were more expensive to fix than roadways. The Cabinet Member explained how he had found the report helpful and valued the Committee’s recommendations.

The Leader of the Council thanked the Committee and acknowledged their role in representing residents. He mentioned that Hillingdon took pride in its roads and pavements and viewed the report as a catalyst for continuous improvement and deriving value from the Council’s expenditure on this.

Alternative options considered and rejected

Cabinet could have decided to reject some, or all, of the Committee’s recommendations or pursue alternative routes by which to progress the objectives of the review.