Issue - meetings

Presentation by the Head of Highways and Public Protection

The Committee received a presentation from Jerry McConkey, Service Manager – Transportation and Highway Infrastructure on the Council’s Winter Service Policy.

Mr. McConkey indicated:

·       That the Highways Act 1980 Section 41 and 58 clearly stated that the Highway Authorities had a statutory duty to maintain the highway and must at all times take reasonable care to ensure that the highway was not dangerous and that the standard of maintenance was appropriate for a highway of that character and used by such traffic; that it must also ensure that a competent person must supervise maintenance work, having received proper training with regard to the highway; and provided information on statutory guidance that must be adhered to including the release of 5 new documents in March 2018

·       That in response to the statutory guidance the Council had procured a new Winter Contract; had a state of the art gritting fleet; that the gritting fleet was tracked; that the Council had a purpose built Winter Facility in Netherton; and had a long term strategy to meet the statutory requirements

·       Provided information on gritting statistics which included 10 carriageway gritters covering 8 carriageway routes; that 35 tonnes of salt per call out was used covering 291 miles of carriageway; the salt storage facility for 3500 tonnes, the salt restocking agreement, and the 8 snow ploughing routes and grit bin locations

·       Historical data on the number of grits per financial year

·       The Policy and Operational Plan and that in the event of a major disruption a regional co-ordinating arrangement would be put in place via Gold Control, chaired by Merseyside Police with senior officer input from the Council

·       Technical information relating to spreading rates; and examples of forecast summaries

Members of the Committee asked questions/commented on the following issues:

·       How temperatures were predicted in areas of Sefton using thermal mapping

·       Operational matters at the Bentham’s Way weather station

·       The relationship and performance satisfaction with the Council’s contractor undertaking winter service operations

RESOLVED: That