Agenda and minutes

Any Member who is substituting for another Member should so indicate, together with the name of the relevant absent Member.

There were not substitutions declared.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Simon Brown, Paul Hopfensperger, Clive Springettand Frank Warby.

Members of the public who live or work in the Borough are invited to put one question/statement of not more than 3 minutes duration relating to items to be discussed in Part 1 of the agenda only.  If a question is asked and answered within 3 minutes, the person who asked the question may ask a supplementary question that arises from the reply.

A person who wishes to speak must register at least 15 minutes before the time the meeting is scheduled to start.

There is an overall limit of 15 minutes for public speaking, which may be extended at the Chairman’s discretion.

Agenda Item 4. (Suffolk County Council – Highways Services (Report No: OAS/SE/17/025)

Councillor Tom Murray, Member of Bury St Edmunds Town Council, addressed the meeting in respect of the above item and specifically raised issues regarding over 200 trips and falls on pavements in Bury St Edmunds; numerous pot holes marked yellow for repair and questioned what the timescale was for fixing pot holes once they had been reported to Highways.

In response, Cllr Jane Storey advised that the first point of contact for standard defect reports should be through the Suffolk Highways reporting tool, which gave a reference number once a report was made.  Also on the Suffolk County Council website was the Highways Maintenance Operational Plan (HMOP), which set out the various categories of defects and timescales for repairs. 

Agenda Item 4. (Suffolk County Council – Highways Services (Report No: OAS/SE/17/025)

Mr David Banbury, a resident from Hengrave, addressed the meeting in respect of the above item and specifically raised two issues:

-      A damaged road sign along the A1101 which had been reported to Suffolk County Council over 12 months ago and had not been addressed; and

-      recently the lack of notice provided to residents in Hengrave when Kier resurfaced only part of the pavements with drop kerbs and not all of the pavements as initially thought. 

In response, Jenny Wilson advised that she would look into the issue regarding the sign along the A1101 near Hengrave and the resurfacing works of all the pavements in Hengrave.  She also stated that there was an Engagement Plan in place for notifying residents on highways maintenance works.

The Chairman of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee thanked Town Councillor Tom Murray and Mr Banbury for their questions/statements.

Report No: OAS/SE/17/025

Councillor Jane Storey (Substantive Cabinet Member for Highways) and Councillor Louis Busuttil (Member with Special Responsibility for Highways Operational Performance) from Suffolk County Council have been invited to the meeting, and will be accompanied by representatives from Suffolk Highways to discuss how communication can be improved between Highways and various tiers of local government for the benefit of all residents and Councillors in West Suffolk.

The Chairman of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee welcomed all those present, especially Councillor Jane Storey (Substantive Cabinet Member for Highways), Councillor Louis Busuttil (Member with Special Responsibility for Highways Operational Performance) from Suffolk County Council and Jenny Wilson (Suffolk Highways - Head of Strategic Services),  who had been invited to the meeting to discuss how communication could be improved between Highways and various tiers of local government for the benefit of all residents and Councillors in West Suffolk. 

The Chairman also welcomed Councillors Simon Cole and Brian Harvey from Forest Heath’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee and Councillor Mary Evans, Chairman of Suffolk County Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee who had been invited to observe the meeting.  She then gave a brief introduction and set out the aim of the meeting, which was to learn how the new highway’s regime was working and to see what improvements might be made in regard to all levels of local government working together.  She referred to Report No: OAS/SE/17/025 and the attached Appendices (1 and 2), before handing over to Councillor Jane Storey, Councillor Louis Busuttil and Jenny Wilson.

Councillor Jane Storey firstly thanked the Committee for the invitation and explained that she was the Deputy Leader of Suffolk County Council and in the short term was acting as the Interim for Highways and Transport whilst the Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport, Councillor James Finch was recuperating. 

Councillor Storey gave an overview of the work which had been carried out; the Highways Transformation Programme which was launched in January 2016 and the various workstream priorities:

-      Contract Management

-      Integration

-      Programme Management (looking at reactive work)

-      Finance (reduction in commissioners; checking ordering and payment mechanisms)

-      Asset Management (looking at a shift towards preventative maintenance and budgets through prioritisation)

-      Communications (SCC and Highways working better with parish/borough councils.

The aim of the Highways Transformation Programme was the refocusing of contracts; relocation of staff; cultural changes; and Kier commercial organisation.

Suffolk County Council (SCC) produced a newsletter called “Highways Matters”, which all SCC Councillors received, and advised that parish/town councils and district/borough councillors could be included on the mailing list to receive the newsletter.

The old area office system had many advantages, with a lot of local knowledge within those area offices, but the disadvantages out weighted the advantages:

-      Local knowledge not being shared;

-      No best practice;

-      No consistency;

-      No agreed county-wide prioritisation;

-      Performance impacted due to staff turnover;

In the past there was one person who was the “go to person”, who became over burdened with work.  However, with the new system there was one telephone number; a highways website reporting system which provided a unique reference number or you could call customer services.  Local councillors could phone customer services to get a progress update.  Borough/district/parish councillors could also escalate issues through their local county councillor up the change of command.  SCC was very conscious that there were better ways of communicating information and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 184.