Agenda item

Concerns and suggestions raised at the meeting included the following:

·        Ward Councillor, Mike Cox, represented the Ward.

·        The Petitioners thanked officers that had visited the site as they could see the bad condition of the road which had raised over a few years.

·        A lot of the petitioners were elderly, therefore could not make it to the petition hearing.

·        Willow Grove also has an impact on Elsey Road.

·        An engineer found a pot hole which was below the legal limit that they had to do a patch the next day on.

·        Residents had written in over the years and this had not been dealt with.

·        Issue was because it had been left so long that this matter was now urgent.

·        Petitioners explained that because this was cul du sac a lot of the traffic had to double travel over the road. This caused double damage to the road. Also foreign drivers come down wrongly and must turn down and go back out. Often drivers reversed into brick walls and knocked them down.

·        The Ward Councillor present agreed with everything lead petitioner had said.

·        That section of road should of been done 2 years ago along with the others and it had been neglected.

·        The pot holes were getting bigger and bigger.

·        The road was not just a quiet cul du sac, it was also used for commuter parking during the day.

·        It was one of the main entrances to Shenley Park, so the road was increasingly used over the last few years. 

·        The officers recommendation included that the road was slowly disintegrating after an estimated 30 to 40 years.

·        Petitioners explained that their children would not visit them as the road would ruin their cars. They would drive to another road and walk down an alley way.

·        The road had been patched up twice in 2 years.

·        They had not seen a road as bad as Willow Grove in the area.

·        The road had very old residents, if they were being driven with bumps etc there was a health issue.

Councillor Keith Burrows listened to the concerns of the petitioners and responded to the points raised. 

Cllr Mills wanted clarification on page 20 from officers. Did the Council need to do this now as a minimum at least: seal the joints. Some of them needed re-sealing. Others would need it with the resurfacing of the road.

UKPMS report had come through recently, approximately 410 miles of road and £2.5 million budget for the borough. £34,000 was required for this road.

The Cabinet Member explained that those urgent on survey must be carried out first and then what we funding was left over for further works to be carried out.

The quickest way was to the do the patching work. It was not ideal but unfortunately the Council do not have the funding for everything.

Officers would look to see when work completion would be possible and where they could get funds.

Any severe deterioration to be highlighted to the Cabinet Member to look into.

If the road was deemed safe by UKPMS and was not high on a priority list then the Cabinet Member and officers must be guided on this.

Anything that went to the Cabinet Member in a petition would be discussed in meetings regularly.

They needed to prioritise the list and then see what funding is available. There was a great number of roads on the list. Some was considered ‘cosmetic’ repairs.

At this stage they could not give an exact time of when work would be carried out. Overall funding had not been fully allocated but there was more urgent work that needs to be done.

Resolved - 

That the Cabinet Member:

1.      Noted that officers had carried out a detailed assessment and that they recommended that the carriageway be considered for inclusion on a future resurfacing programme.  Officers are to explore possible resources to fund this work.

Reasons For Recommendation

The existing carriageway surface had deteriorated to the extent that shallow fretting had taken place in isolated areas of the carriageway. The failure was due to the natural ageing of the bitmac surface which was slowly disintegrating after an estimated life of 30 to 40 years. Past patching had filled some of the worst fretting but only as a temporary measure. The limited patching that had been carried out in the past had a detrimental effect to ride quality, particularly for cyclists and the commonly used centre part of the road had undulations caused by the successive patching. Resurfacing would of provided a smoother, safer riding surface, maintained the asset value of the highways and improved the visual aspect of the street.

Alternative Options Considered

Officers considered that the carriageway surface was now beyond normal patching repair and that resurfacing was the only option available.

Relevant Ward:

MANOR