Issue - meetings

RESOLVED

KEY DECISION

The Chair invited Cllr Valerie Anslow to address the meeting. Cllr Anslow spoke to welcome elements of the report and additional funding for the highways network but spoke in favour of road resurfacing rather than pothole filling. Cllr Anslow also queried figures for insurance payouts and accidents resulting from pothole damage and stated that Kier, as the Council’s contractor, needed to have its effectiveness scrutinised

The Chair thanked Cllr Anslow for her comments and offered his support for her views on the Council’s highways contractor, noting that he would continue to speak out until the best service level was received across the area. The Chair then invited Cllr Lee to address the meeting.

Cllr Lee questioned what performance indicators were in place to measure the value for money level offered by Kier’s highway repairs and whether the quality of workmanship was independently verified. Cllr Lee also raised the issue of new LED streetlighting not being bright enough for residents to see potholes whilst driving.

The Chair thanked Cllr Lee for her comments, noting that he was aware of the LED streetlighting issue and had sought a report to ascertain whether they were fit for purpose. The Chair then invited Cllr Dorothy Maxwell to address the Executive. 

Cllr Maxwell welcomed the additional highways funding and referred to ongoing roadworks at the A14 near Thrapston as well as querying whether the highways contract covered rubbish collection and bin installation. Cllr Maxwell also referred to white line marking and effective streetlighting.

The Chair thanked Cllr Maxwell for her comments before inviting Cllr Jim Hakewill to address the meeting. Cllr Hakewill requested that the lighting report referred to by the Chair be brought to a future scrutiny meeting and echoed comments supporting the climate change assessment tool. Cllr Hakewill queried how funding for 2024/25 compared to the previous year and noted that that Council had received a real terms decrease in funding due to inflation. Cllr Hakewill queried how the Leader would solve the issue of poor-quality highways repairs.

The Chair thanked Cllr Hakewill for his contribution before inviting the Executive Member for Highways, Travel and Assets, Cllr Matt Binley to introduce a report that sought approval to add £1.069m of government funding derived from the cancellation of High Speed 2 northern phase 2 to the capital programme of highway maintenance to the 2023/24 in-year budget and additionally for 2024/25.

Cllr Binley reported that the funding was part of an 11-year government investment plan into the roads with the current list of works to be assessed to determine which works would be delivered. The works would be based on current priorities in the list of identified schemes, in accordance with the Northamptonshire Asset Management Plan and the Network Management Plan.

It was noted that the Department for Transport had introduced a requirement that by March 2024 the Council publish a summary of the additional resurfacing works to be delivered from the funding over the two-year period, with quarterly update reports published detailing what works  ...  view the full minutes text for item 589