Issue - meetings

Report by the Director of Communities, Economy and Transport.

35.1     The Contracts Manager, Highway Infrastructure Services introduced the report which is a final update report on the implementation of the recommendations from the Scrutiny Review of Road markings report. The Department’s updated response to the recommendations is contained in appendix 1 of the report.

35.2     The Committee considered the report and a summary of the discussion of the report is given below.

Frequency of line marking

35.3     The Committee asked whether the Council was now able to renew road markings more quickly than before. The Contracts Manager, Highway Infrastructure Services outlined that the highway maintenance base budget for road markings has been increased as part of the new highways maintenance contract and there is a one road marking team working all year round. Part of the capital budget is also spent on road markings which is used for the machine laid programme of renewing road markings. The Highways Team is also spending an additional £500,000 on road markings that was allocated by Cabinet after the scrutiny review. At present there are two teams working on renewing road markings around the county.

35.4     The Committee asked if ESCC has a duty to maintain road markings under the Highways Act. The Contracts Manager, Highway Infrastructure Services explained that local policy sets out how often line markings are renewed. Consequently, the frequency of maintenance is based on local, not national, policy.

35.5     The Committee enquired about the priority of maintenance for road crossings and other road safety markings. The Contracts Manager, Highway Infrastructure Services set out that all road markings are there to create a safe environment for road users and the maintenance frequency priorities are set by local policy. If road markings important for road safety are worn (e.g. for crossings), they will be refreshed. The Council uses a risk based approach and Highway Stewards can request road markings to be refreshed as part of their routine inspections.

Renewing road markings where road surfaces are deteriorating

35.6     The Committee commented that it some situations the poor condition of road surfacing may prevent road markings being renewed and asked what happens in these situations. The Contracts Manager, Highway Infrastructure Services responded that road markings are replaced when carrying out road repairs and the teams will look to renew road markings as part of capital road maintenance schemes. In general, road markings will not be renewed on road surfaces that are damaged and will be replaced after repairs have been carried out.

Autonomous Vehicles

35.7     The Committee commented that road markings are becoming important for the use of Autonomous Vehicles which need to calculate their position on the road. This may become an issue in future if Autonomous Vehicles come into widespread use and start using roads across the road network.

Road markings for parking enforcement

35.8     The Committee commented that a lot of the road markings in built up areas were associated with parking bays or parking restrictions and asked whether there was a case for using the parking enforcement budget further  ...  view the full minutes text for item 35

Report of the Director of Communities, Economy and Transport.

6.1       The Contract Manager, Highway Infrastructure Services introduced the report. He outlined the areas of focus for the review and the work undertaken with the Review Board. The scrutiny review was presented to Cabinet in November 2020 where the action plan, developed in response to the six recommendations of the review, was agreed by Cabinet ahead of approval by Full Council. The action plan, together with an update on the implementation of recommendations of the review, is contained in appendix 1 of the report.

6.2       The Contract Manager Highway Infrastructure Services summarised the work that had been undertaken on the six recommendations:

• Recommendation 1 was developed in response to the line of enquiry which looked at why some road markings wear out more quickly than others. The Team has explored the use of new materials for road markings and has started trials in a number of parts of the County using MMA which is an enhanced resin material which it is claimed to last up to 3 times longer than standard materials.
• Recommendation 2 is to ensure Highway Stewards include road markings in their routine safety inspections. The Contract Manager Highway Infrastructure Services is able to assure the Committee that this is consistently taking place.
• Recommendation 3 concerns the work of utility companies and Highways England. The web site has been updated to include information on these organisations which also carry out work on the highway and their responsibilities.
• Recommendation 4 – allocation of resources to road markings. The Contract Manager Highway Infrastructure Services confirmed that the first priority for resources are safety critical road markings such as stop lines, centre line markings and pedestrian crossings. The allocation of funding for an additional road marking gang enabled 2,322 safety defect and road marking renewal jobs to be carried out over the last service year.
• Recommendation 5. The Parking budget is now recharged with the cost of any significant road marking work carried by the highways team.
• Recommendation 6. Unfortunately, there has not been any Government funding that could be used for road marking work since the review was completed. However, all safety critical road marking work has been undertaken, line marking refresh work has taken place and some capital works have also been carried out on a machine laid road marking programme. Expenditure on road markings over the last year has included: £165,000 in the core maintenance budget; around £200,000 on the additional road marking gang; and £400,000 on the machine laid capital works programme. It was clarified that a single gang is being used in the current service year and it is estimated that expenditure on road markings will be around £360,000. The implementation of the recommendation to increase the base budget for road markings in the highways contract will be looked at as part of the new highways contract which starts in May 2023.

6.3       The Chair invited Councillor Godfrey Daniel, who was Chair of the Review Board, to speak on this item. Councillor Daniel commented that the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6

Report by Assistant Chief Executive

28.1     The Cabinet considered a report by the Place Scrutiny Committee and a report by the Director of Communities, Economy and Transport with observations on the Scrutiny Committee’s report.

28.2 It was RESOLVED to:

1) note and welcome the report of the Scrutiny Committee; and

2) recommend the County Council to welcome the report of the Scrutiny Committee and to agree the response of the Director of Communities, Economy and Transport  to the recommendations and their implementation as set out in the action plan attached as Appendix 1 to the Director’s report.

Reason

28.3     The Scrutiny review has been welcomed by the Department as it highlighted some concerns about the current approach to maintaining road markings in the county and provided an opportunity for officers to provide an explanation as to how the service is delivered.

Report by the Director of Communities, Economy and Transport

Report by the Chair of the Review Board.

6.1       Councillor Godfrey Daniel, Chair of the review board, introduced the report. Councillors Barry Taylor and Stephen Shing comprised the other members of the review board, which examined the renewal and maintenance of road markings across the County. There was a general recognition by East Sussex County Councillors that road markings in some places needed renewing and the review examined the current position. Councillor Daniel thanked all those involved in the review which is an excellent example of scrutiny working collaboratively with officers, the Lead Member for Transport and Environment and Councillors.

6.2       Councillor Daniel outlined the six recommendations of the report. Recommendation 4 recommends that road markings are given greater priority for funding, which has been recognised through the allocation of an extra £165,000 of funding. Recommendation 5 recommends recharging the cost of renewing parking enforcement road markings to the parking budget. This is consistent with the way in which the other costs of operating a Civil Parking Enforcement (CPE) scheme are funded. This will then free up money for the maintenance of highway road markings. Recommendation 6 looks at future areas of funding and members of the Committee are engaged with the re-procurement of the Highways Maintenance contract which can address this need (recommendation 6c).

6.3       The members of the Committee discussed the report of the review board. It was clarified that the £24,000 that would be recharged to the parking budget if recommendation 5 is agreed, would be used on other road marking work and makes logical sense given the way other CPE costs are charged. The Director of Communities, Economy and Transport added that this would also reduce the parking surplus available to carry out other transport schemes.

6.4       Members of the review board and Committee commented on the positive improvement they had seen in the condition of road markings in their Divisions since the additional road marking team had been working across the County. The Committee noted the thoroughness of the review and supported the recommendations contained in the report of the review board. The Committee agreed the report of the review board and resolved to make recommendations to Cabinet and Full Council.

6.5       The Committee RESOLVED to endorse the report and make recommendations to Cabinet for comment, and Full Council for approval.

Report by the Chair of the Review Board.