Agenda item

To consider a report (copy enclosed) by the Head of Highways, Facilities & Environmental Services detailing the recovery plan for highways and public realm from the impact of Covid-19.

11:30 – 12:05

Agreement on the recommendation was by consensus.  No formal vote was taken.  All members indicated they were in favour of the recommendation, no one indicated they were against it and no one indicated they wanted to abstain.

Resolved: - subject to the above observations to:

(i)           support the recovery plan, as set out in Appendix A, to the report;

(ii)          extend the Committee’s sincerest gratitude to all staff within the Highways and Public Realm Service for all their work and efforts in delivering services to the best of their abilities during the lockdown restrictions period, and also for their work in preparing and planning for the Service’s recovery from responding to the pandemic to delivering day to day business and the Service’s recovery objectives; and

(iii)        request that the Member Workshop on the Highways Code of Practice and Service associated matters that had to be cancelled due to the pandemic be rescheduled and held via video conferencing as soon as possible

The Lead Member for Waste, Transport and the Environment introduced the report (previously circulated) explaining the two phased approach to recovery as:

1.    Short term – resuming normal highway maintenance activities and

2.    Sustainable model – a longer term maintenance plan involving future structures of the department and new technology for increased efficiency.

The Head of Highways, Facilities and Environmental Services acknowledged that the report did not paint a particularly positive picture but there was a need to be open and honest about the challenges the Service faced. The 7 months of disruption to highway maintenance occurred at exactly the time when the majority of maintenance for the year would have been undertaken. The loss of the entire annual highways maintenance cycle meant that roads that had required work before had deteriorated further and would cost much more to bring up to an acceptable standard again. Highways work had resumed as a matter of urgency in order to achieve as much as possible before the onset of winter with its inherent risks - winter gritting and potential second spike in Covid-19. Contingency plans were being developed to manage that risk.

Responding to members of the Committee the Head of Highways, Facilities and Environmental Services and Risk and Asset Manager:

·         highlighted the difficulty of securing surfacing contractors when they were so few in numbers and in demand across the whole country;

·         advised that contractors were generally easier to secure when larger scored volumes of work are available, leaving Denbighshire’s relatively small programme at a disadvantage;

·         highlighted that the local road condition scoring surveys that are usually undertaken twice yearly had been suspended for the past 6 months, due to Covid-19. However the roads survey for the national Key Performance Indicators had been completed on August 6^th. The results were expected back in the Spring of 2021;

·         agreed to look at reconvening the members workshop (virtually) on the Highways Code of Practice and Maintenance Strategy planned prior to lockdown;

·         acknowledged the limited capacity due to the balancing of resources for gulley and ditch maintenance. For that reason, some capacity is kept available for reactive work, although much of that work is scheduled;

·         confirmed that land owners were contacted regarding the condition of their roadside hedgerows and served notice to cut them back, where necessary; and

·         advised that road surface water was rarely the responsibility of Welsh Water or Natural Resources Wales but, when it was, the Authority worked with them to resolve it;

At the end of the discussion agreement on the report recommendation was by consensus.  No formal vote was taken.  All members indicated they were in favour of the recommendation, no one indicated they were against it and no one indicated they wanted to abstain.

Resolved: - subject to the above observations to:

(i)           support the recovery plan, as set out in Appendix A, to the report;

(ii)          extend the Committee’s sincerest gratitude to all staff within the Highways and Public Realm Service for all their work and efforts in delivering services to the best of their abilities during the lockdown restrictions period, and also for their work in preparing and planning for the Service’s recovery from responding to the pandemic to delivering day to day business and the Service’s recovery objectives; and

(iii)       request that the Member Workshop on the Highways Code of Practice and Service associated matters that had to be cancelled due to the pandemic be rescheduled and held via video conferencing as soon as possible.