Agenda item

Report of the Head of Locality Services - Commissioned

The Committee considered the report of the Head of Locality Services – Commissioned that sought views and approval of the Winter Service Policy and Operational Plan for 2018/19.

The report indicated that the Council provided a Highway Winter Service to the Borough in accordance with the Winter Service Policy and Operational Plan; that officers monitored the weather conditions 24 hours a day throughout the winter season and enacted the plan when weather conditions dictated; that the Railways and Transport Safety Act 2003 (section 111) had inserted an additional section 41(1A) to the Highways Act 1980 which placed a duty on Highway Authorities in respect of winter conditions, and stated ‘In particular, a Highway Authority was under duty to ensure, as far as reasonably practicable, that safe passage along a highway was not endangered by snow or ice’; and that in addition, the Traffic Management Act 2004 placed a Statutory Network Management Duty on all local traffic authorities in England requiring authorities to do all that was reasonably practicable to manage the network effectively to keep traffic moving.

The report also indicated that the Winter Service Policy and Operational Plan was subject to an annual review, reassessment and consultation; that as part of this and in accordance with Cabinet Member’s wishes, a consultation letter was sent to every Elected Member; and that Merseytravel had also been contacted and asked if there had been any revisions to their bus routes since last year.

The report concluded that the Policy was based on guidance provided by the Government in a document entitled ‘Well Maintained Highways – Code of Practice for Highway Maintenance Management.’; that a new code of practice was published in 2016 entitled ‘Well Managed Highway Infrastructure’ which superseded all previous codes but that the section relating to Winter Service had been delayed a number of times and had yet to be released; and advised that:-

·         all routes as advised by Merseytravel, will be gritted as part of the routine gritting operations. Merseytravel has confirmed that there are no amendments required to this year’s routes and has reported no issues with last year’s winter gritting operations

·         a new tender has recently been awarded for the winter service operations and includes a number of enhancements for the forthcoming season including a new purpose-built winter service facility with a salt barn capable of holding 3500 tonnes of rocksalt

·         a new gritting fleet was being provided by the contractor with the latest technology to allow for optimum salt spread rates and to meet the requirements of ‘Good Coverage’ as detailed in the code of practice

·         a new weighbridge was in use to accurately monitor salt usage and new vehicle trackers to monitor real time activities more effectively

·         there were no responses received as a result of the consultation with Elected Members

A copy of the latest version of the  Winter Service Policy and Operational Plan for 2018/19 was circulated to Members at the meeting.

Members asked questions/raised issues on the following matters:-

·         the sufficiency of 3500 tonnes of salt to last for the winter period and the contingency plans in place if the stocks were depleted due to severe weather, including the mitigation of financial pressures

·         improvements to the winter service due to the ability for all gritting vehicles to be fitted with snowploughs

·         operational difficulties experienced by snowploughs in areas with traffic calming/speed bumps

RESOLVED: That