Agenda and minutes

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

The following substitution was declared:

Councillor Patricia Warby for Councillor Clive Springett.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Patrick Chung, Robin Pilley, Richard Rout, Clive Springett and Sarah Stamp.

Councillor Anthony Williams was also unable to attend.

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.

There were no questions/statements from members of the public.

Report No: OAS/SE/18/029

Councillor Mary Evans (Cabinet Member for Highways, Transport and Rural Affairs) from Suffolk County Council has been invited to this follow-up meeting, and will be accompanied by officers from Suffolk County Council to discuss progress made in relation to the recommendations made at the Extraordinary Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 25 October 2017

The Chairman of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee welcomed all those present, especially Councillor Mary Evans (Cabinet Member for Highways, Transport and Rural Affairs), Kerry Allen (Principal Transport Planner) and John Clements (Head of Infrastructure Management) from Suffolk County Council (SCC), who had been invited to the meeting.

The newly appointed Suffolk County Council Cabinet Member for Highways, Transport and Rural Affairs, Councillor Mary Evans had been asked to address the Committee on progress made in relation to the recommendations made at the Extraordinary Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 25 October 2017, and her achievements to day and aspirations for the future.

This meeting was a follow-up from last year when the then Portfolio Holder Councillor Jane Storey had attended, and members expressed their dissatisfaction with Highways generally at that time.  The recommendations made to Councillor Jane Storey were outlined in Report No: OAS/SE/18/029 and all scrutiny members and substitutes had received a copy of her reply in January 2018.  Some of the replies received were disappointing and as Chairman of the Committee, I responded to reiterate three particular points:

1.   Completely denying Borough and town/district councils  to build relationships with a Community Engineer was a mistake especially given concerns around a lack of communication;

2.   The Committee was pleased that County Officers would now pay heed to our Master Plans but it begged the question why Highways had not done this previously especially as they had been involved in the Master Plan process from the beginning.  The Planning system had to take account of local plans so why did not Highways automatically do the same?

3.   Poor standard of work.

Councillor Mary Evans attended the meeting last year in her capacity as the Chair of the Suffolk County Council Scrutiny Committee and shared all of our frustrations with the performance of Highways.   I welcome her again today in her new role, and look forward to hearing what improvements had been made and what she aspires to do for the future. 

Finally, the Chairman welcomed Councillors John Griffiths, Susan Glossop, and Julia Wakelam who had been invited to the meeting as observers, before handing over to Councillor Mary Evans.

Councillor Mary Evans firstly thanked the Committee for the invitation and introduced John Clements who was responsible for operations and Kerry Allen who was responsible for the strategy side of highways.  She then acknowledged there had been some disconnection in the past in how highways had operated. 

However, since taking over the Cabinet post in late May 2018 with enthusiasm, a new Highways Improvement and Innovations Board had been established.  Its first task was to look at the long standing issue of potholes.  As part of that work the Board had identified a sample road with potholes and it was reviewing the process of reporting issues; the amount of time road gangs spent travelling to sites; and the number of pothole categories.  It had been identified that the only way to gain efficiencies was to reduce the length of time  ...  view the full minutes text for item 260.