Venue: Council Chamber at North West Leicestershire District Council Offices
Contact: Sue Dann Tel: (0116) 305 7122
No. | Item |
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Chairman's welcome Minutes: The Chairman welcomed Members and officers to the meeting. |
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Apologies for absence Minutes: Apologies for absence were received from County Councillors J Eynon and T J Pendleton |
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Any other items which the Chairman has decided to take as urgent elsewhere on the agenda Minutes: There were no urgent items. |
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Declarations of interest in respect of items on the agenda Minutes: There were no declarations of interest. |
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Minutes of the previous meeting Minutes: Minutes of the previous meeting held on Wednesday 18th October 2016 were confirmed and signed as a true record of the meeting. |
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Chairmans Update |
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Minutes: The Forum considered an update by the Director of
Environment and Transport on grass cutting.
This update was introduced by Ms Carruthers with a copy filed with the
minutes. Ms Carruthers took Members through the details of the update
and highlighted the key areas on performance after last season and proposals
for next season. She advised that the
number of customer contacts with regard to grass cutting issues had reduced in
2016, which followed a number of changes to the service which had moved
in-house at the end of 2014. The frequency of the cutting was reduced from 6
cuts to 5 in 2015 following a public consultation on the MTFS budget where the
public fed back that they felt grass cutting was not a high priority and could
be reduced. In reality, there was a high
level of customer contacts regarding the grass cutting that same year. A review was held as a result of this and a
decision made at Cabinet in October 2015 to increase urban cuts to 6 a year
along with introducing a new responsive approach to customer care better
reflecting the growth of the grass thereby having more frequent cuts earlier in
the season. She added that rural cuts
remained the same at two per year. Ms Carruthers explained that the graph of the performance
monitoring information showed that 2016 had the lowest number of customer
contacts since 2013 when 7 cuts were carried out per year, and substantially
lower than 2014 and 2015. Ms
Carruthers went on to say that a number of further improvements were being made
which will again enable a more proactive and responsive level of service. She informed Members that the level of
information available will allow officers to understand why areas are missed,
for example when cars are parked across grassed areas and this will ensure that
works are reprogrammed more efficiently.
Cllr M Wyatt CC admitted that he was the biggest critic of
this initially but thanked officers for the massive positive impact to the
local area with increasing the cuts to 6 and he stated that he hopes it stays
at 6. The Chair thanked Cllr Wyatt for
his positive comments. RECOMMENDATION That the update of the Director of Environment and Transport be noted. |
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Coalville Growth Area of Strategy (verbal update) Minutes: The Forum considered a verbal update by the Director of
Environment and Transport regarding the Coalville
Growth Area of Strategy. This update was
a presentation by Ms Carruthers. Ms Carruthers took Members through the presentation on the
A511 study works and highlighted the key areas.
The presentation covered the following: • Development Scenario – based on Core
Strategy all known growth and regeneration; • Junction Mitigation Scenario –
considers mitigation at key junctions within study area • Junction
Mitigation With Bardon Link Road Ms Carruthers showed Members a plan detailing the proposed
location of the junction improvement works and went through the data that had
been collected during the study works.
Ms Carruthers stated that the results showed that the package of
mitigation measures including the Bardon Link Road offers the best overall
benefits for the local area. Ms Carruthers explained to Members that this work is
necessary to ensure the County Council can take advantage of funding
opportunities when these arise. She went
on to say that further work will be carried out on this and an update will be
brought to the next Forum. Cllr Wyatt said that he sees this as a step forward and is
happy that progress is being made and will be pleased when the link road is in. Cllr J Legrys DC asked whether Hugglescote Crossroads had been removed from these
works. Ms Carruthers answered that
improvements there have been modelled but due to the strong community feeling,
further work will be carried out that will not include improvements at this
junction.. Cllr Legrys asked whether the
model will be complete for the Local Plan Inquiry. Ms Carruthers answered that
the current work modelling different scenarios for this contributions strategy
is separate to the transport work supporting the local plan. Cllr Legrys asked if Members could
have a copy of the presentation. Ms
Carruthers advised that as this was only half a piece of work, she suggested
that they wait for a more complete update which will be coming to the next Forum. RECOMMENDATIONS i) That the update of the Director of
Environment and Transport be noted; and ii) That a further update be brought to the next Forum meeting. |
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Grange Road, Coalville Minutes: The Forum considered a verbal update by the Director of
Environment and Transport regarding the progress on the Grange Road, Hugglescote access and Traffic Regulation Order. This update was introduced by Ms Carruthers
with a copy filed with the minutes. Ms Carruthers took Members through the update and
highlighted the key areas. She advised
Members that a progress meeting had now taken place on 8th February and work
was now underway on site. Cllr Legrys informed Members that
Cllr T Eynon CC who couldn’t attend the meeting due to a clash in meetings had
asked him to inform officers that she was disappointed by the decision made on
the TRO detailed in this report. RECOMMENDATION That the update of the Director of Environment and Transport be noted |
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Presentation of Petitions under Standing Order 36. Minutes: There are no current petitions. |
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Response to Petition: Flooding at junction of Bath Lane and Via Devana, Moira Minutes: The Forum considered a report by the Director of Environment
and Transport in response to the petition requesting immediate action to
resolve the flooding at the junction of Bath Lane and Via Devana,
Moira. Ms Carruthers took Members through the report and the
investigation which was carried out leading to the report, following the
presentation of the petition to Members at the last Highway Forum. Ms Carruthers advised Members that as Lead Local Flood
Authority (LLFA) the County Council are already aware of the problems in this
area and are working with partners to rectify the issues. Officers are also working with the local
landowners as there is an investigation ongoing as to whether there are some
issues with blocked drainage pipes under the adjacent playing fields which are
in private ownership. Ms Carruthers clarified that officers from Severn Trent are
due to carry out a hydrological model and this may provide the key of how to
resolve this issue, however to date Severn Trent have not committed to a
timescale for this work. She also
highlighted that there are similar challenging issues around the County of
working with utility companies to seek action to resolve flooding and drainage
issues. Ms Carruthers reminded Members that as LLFA officers, their
responsibility is to highlight the issues to partners and then work with them
to achieve solutions. The LLFA however
does not have the ability to enforce action from other utility companies. Ms Carruthers confirmed that Severn Trent Water had agreed
to attend a LCC Scrutiny Commission meeting on 8th March to discuss how they
are planning to maintain and upgrade their systems in view of the significant
growth agenda moving forward. She
confirmed that officers are frequently in contact with Severn Trent Water
officers to ensure there is ongoing commitment on both sides. Ms Carruthers stated that further work is being carried out
by LCC Highways to alter the culverted watercourse alignment under Bath Lane to
alleviate the frequency and severity of future flooding occurrences. This work will be carried out in the coming
financial year. Ms Carruthers stated that LLFA officers are proposing to
undertake a further CCTV survey for the whole length of the field. Officers will then work with the Minors
Welfare Society to ensure the necessary remedial action is taken. Ms Carruthers concluded that residents may not be satisfied
with the rate of progress on this matter however, as much as possible is being
done to work with the relevant parties to try and sort out the issues at this
location. Cllr D Harrison DC raised his concerns about Severn Trent’s
response to the flooding issues and specifically the filling in of a dip in the
road on the residential development and asked whether
this would be a remedial way of resolving the issue. Ms Carruthers responded that all the options
would need to be looked at as merely changing the level of the road is likely
to simply move the flooding issue elsewhere rather than curing the issue for
the community. It would also potentially
be a costly option. Cllr S Sheahan CC thanked officers for the report and stated that he was pleased with the proposed drainage improvement scheme for next year (financial year 2017/18). He raised concerns about the issues in para 8 of the report and asked how co-operative Severn Trent are being. He stated that there will be an opportunity to find out at Scrutiny Commission on 8th March, he also asked about the nature of the dialogue. Mr Knight answered that there were meetings with Severn Trent bi-monthly on a ... view the full minutes text for item 8. |
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Highway Maintenance Strategy and Policy Review Additional documents: Minutes: The Forum considered a report by the Director of Environment
and Transport with regard to the Highway Maintenance Strategy and Policy
Review. The report was introduced by Ms
Carruthers with a copy filed with the minutes. Ms Carruthers took Members through the report and advised
that this followed on from the report to the last meeting entitled A-Roads to
Zebras – A Comprehensive Maintenance Review.
This detailed the reasons for the
review and the current extreme financial challenges and the alteration in the
way that funding is being processed by the Department for Transport, together
with the changes that will need to occur to comply with the new Code of Practice. We need to alter
our approach to Highway Maintenance to maximise the amount of funding
available. It will need to be more of a
risk based approach and at the same time operating with a considerably reduced
budget. Ms Carruthers reported that the views of the public on
services and priorities were fed into the comprehensive report to Cabinet on
13th December 2016, which set out a draft Highway Asset Management Policy and
Strategy which have been produced and are attached to the report for
information. Ms Carruthers encouraged
Members to feed into the current consultation on the draft policy and strategy
that is open until on 24th March and to also encourage others to take
part. The results will be used to
formulate the final policy and strategy which will determine future years work programmes. Ms Carruthers highlighted that a pilot scheme is going to be
set up whereby the Council will work with the community to give clarity on what
they can get involved with. She advised
that there is a whole spectrum of involvement from grass cutting to sign
cleaning. Ms Carruthers stated that the
pilot will be important to ensure we gain the knowledge of what it would be
reasonable to enable communities to take on in terms of highway maintenance
functions in future. Cllr Sheahan advised that it may
vary from parish to parish. Ms Carruthers
agreed and stated that pilots will help shape what the service will look like
in future. It is likely it will be very
different and that knowing what the public’s
priorities are is therefore very important.
Some services will be stopped, some will continue as now and some could
be carried out by the community. Cllr Harrison asked about how funding would be made for the
Parish Council’s carrying out these duties.
Ms Carruthers clarified that there would be no funding for these works,
the County Council would offer support, training, legal and insurance
assistance only. There is the voluntary
precept if the Parish Council wants to go down that line. Cllr Legrys stated that he
welcomed the honesty in this report and for officers bringing it to Members
attention. He asked that the Comms team communicate this message as Councillors are
constantly being asked for pot holes to be repaired and overhanging trees cut
down and it is difficult for Councillors to continually be saying it won’t be
done. Ms Carruthers responded that the
County Council still have their core services i.e. pot holes repair but this
will be done on a more risk based approach.
There was a discussion about the Customer Service Centre and
the poor level of service. Ms Carruthers
advised that she would speak to the Manager as all urgent issues should be
passed directly to operation control. RECOMMENDATIONS i) That the report of the Director of
Environment and Transport be noted; and ii) That Ms Carruthers will speak to the Manager of ... view the full minutes text for item 9. |
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2016/17 maintenance and improvements programmes - information item Additional documents: Minutes: Members noted the report. |
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Programme of traffic management work - current position - information item Additional documents: Minutes: Members noted the report. |
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On-going action statement Minutes: The ongoing action was noted. |
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Items for consideration for future discussion Will Members please submit these in writing to the officers prior to the meeting Minutes: The Chairman asked Members to let officers have in writing any items for consideration for future agendas within 10 days of the date of the meeting. These items can be sent to Sue Dann, email sue.dann@leics.gov.uk. |
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Any other items the Chairman has decided is urgent Minutes: There were no urgent items. |
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Date of the next meeting - 29th June 2017 at 4.30pm in the Council Chamber at North West Leicestershire District Council offices. |
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Chairman's Closing Remarks Minutes: The Chairman thanked Members and officers for their attendance and contribution at the meeting. The Chairman stated that due to the Elections in May there may be a set of new Members and a new Chairman for this Forum. |