Agenda and minutes

www.swansea.gov.uk/disclosuresofinterests

No interests declared.

Mark Thomas, Cabinet Member for Environment Services

Stuart Davies, Head of Service, Highways and Transportation

Bob Fenwick, Group Leader, Highways Maintenance

Mark Thomas, Cabinet Member for Environment Services went through the report, highlighting the main issues.  Stuart Davies, Head of Highways and Transportation and Bob Fenwick, Group Leader Highways Maintenance also attended and answered questions. 

The following main issues were discussed:

·         Issue with non-adopted roads.  Working Group concerned with costs to the Council.  Informed there is no legislation forcing developers to have new roads adopted but the Authority does encourage developers too.  It is a problem facing Local Authorities across Wales.

·         Swansea needs to look at the influence Planning can have in terms of roads and footway maintenance.  There is also a need to look at how these obligations are policed. Need to encourage Welsh Government to introduce legislation. 

·         Need to increase public understanding of adopted/non adopted roads.  If more than 50% of householders with frontages on a road want it adopted, it can be, but householders will be charged to bring the road up to standard first. 

·         There is no legislation to prevent cars parking on footpaths unless they are causing an obstruction.

·         Footpaths and footways are classed as part of highways in terms of budget for maintenance

·         In terms of capital spend approximately £1.3 million is spent on roads and £600 thousand on footways.  Proportionally footways have had a big increase in spend in the last 5 to 7 years.

·         There is a routine maintenance programme for footways.  The Authority is ahead of the 5 year programme.

·         Safety inspections of footways are carried out at regular intervals (minimum of once a year)

·         The backlog of £54 million of work is for roads only.  It is approximately £150 million for all works including bridges, footways etc.  Evidence submitted to Welsh Government about backlog of work in Wales as Local Authorities unable to tackle the problem themselves.

·         Received additional grant funding from Welsh Government for a number of projects as we were able to complete them within a short timescale.

·         If drainage was improved less would be spent on road maintenance.  Informed more drainage and gullies are put in place in new roads.  Only three road sweeper machines in Swansea so very difficult to keep all drains clear.  Maintenance of gullies is every three years but try to do the ones that cause accidents every 6 months. Working Group suggested surface water flooding and drainage is something for planning enforcement to deal with if it is due to new developments.

·         A list of planned maintenance of highways is available to view on line.  The target for completion within 28 days.  If damage is reported under the pothole initiative it is usually completed within 48 hours. Need better publicity of this initiative.

·         The removal of weeds on roads and footways is not statutory.  Problems with removal of weeds last summer due to issues with the contractor and because the weather was a lot wetter than normal there were a lot more weeds.  Working Group has concerns about indiscriminate spraying.

·         Difficult to cover this topic in one Working Group.  Suggest to Scrutiny Committee considered as a future inquiry.

Councillors are asked to discuss conclusions arising from this session for inclusion in the Convener’s letter to the Cabinet Member:

a) What do you want to say about this issue to the Cabinet Member in the Convener’s letter (what are your conclusions arising from this session?)

b) Do you have any recommendations for the Cabinet Member arising from this session?

c) Are there any further issues you wish to highlight to the Scrutiny Programme Committee arising from this session?

The Working Group discussed progress and made the following conclusions:

·         Working Group felt the Planning Department could do more for new developments in terms of ensuring developers consider adoption of roads, layout of roads, car parking etc, either through additional legislation from the Welsh Government or by putting pressure on developers.  Working Group recommends that the Authority investigates whether there are additional measures that can be brought in or if we can lobby Welsh Government if there currently are not.

·         Working Group feels it is important that any planning procedures which come to Highways for comment make very clear the effect they will have on drainage etc.

·         In relation to drainage the Working Group would like to know if there are any provisions in place in case rain fall increases in the future ie wetter weather.

·         Working Group felt planning enforcement is really important.  They feel that planning enforcement officers should be involved at the first stages of any new development and should work with developers of sites to deal with any issues.  Working Group would like to see Clerk of Works / Inspector on new development sites to monitor proceedings.

·         Working Group felt the pot hole initiative works well.  They were pleased to hear that members of the public, councillors etc will receive a response if email addresses are supplied, whether the issue has been dealt with or not. However they wondered how well this initiative has been publicised and are not convinced members of the public are aware how easy it is to report. Working Group therefore recommends the initiative is better publicised.

·         The Working Group would like to see a Code of Practice introduced in relation to obstruction of carriageways by developers/ builders etc.

·         In terms of footway obstruction and damage and blocked drains and gullies, Working Group would like to see registered list of companies made available to developers / contractors in the Swansea area.

·         Working Group has concerns about indiscriminating weed spraying and would like reassurance from the Cabinet Member that spraying is done on a planned basis and the products used are not calcinogenic . 

·         Working Group feels that a more in depth piece of work is needed to fully cover this area and recommends to the Scrutiny Programme Committee that Road and Footway Maintenance be considered as a future scrutiny inquiry topic.

Following on from this meeting:

·         A letter will be written from the convener of the Working Group to the Cabinet Member for Environment Services, summarising the discussion and outlining the Working Group’s thoughts and recommendations.