Contact: Tristan Meekins, ext 7949 email: [email protected]

1. Summary

1.1 This report outlines details of the 2005/06 Minor Works budget and programme.

2. Background

2.1 The Minor Works Programme is funded from the Capital Programme allocation based on the Local Transport Plan (LTP) submission to the Department for Transport.

2.2 Minor Improvement Works have traditionally been regarded as those smaller improvement schemes, such as missing footway links, sight line improvements, etc. The original scheme limit (£10,000) was set in the mid 1980s. However construction related inflation and 8% fees have reduced what is achievable and it is becoming increasingly difficult to find and build schemes within this £10,000 limit. It is proposed that, to increase flexibility, and with HTAP Member support, the limit be increased to £25,000. It is further proposed that, as the overall Under £10,000 programme is submitted annually to the Executive Member for Environment and updates are reported to the individual HTAPs in the autumn, the need for individual project appraisals on schemes valued between £10,000-£25,000 (approved by the Director of Environment) under this programme heading be withdrawn, and a single project statement, focused on outcomes and value for money, be provided as an alternative. Whilst they only have a limited impact on strategic transport issues, they do provide a considerable benefit to local communities by improving local highway infrastructure and assisting with mobility and safety on the highway.

3. Minor Works Budget

3.1 The budget for the minor works programme has been set at £200,000 for 2005/06 for the whole of Hampshire. This sum has then been divided amongst the four Highway Units in order to give a balanced spread of minor improvement works across all of the districts.

4. Minor Works Programme

4.1 The demand for schemes greatly exceeds the funds available and it is therefore necessary to prioritise the schemes put forward for funding. An initial assessment of the schemes was carried out by officers. This initial assessment looked at a number of criteria across a range of Government and Hampshire County Council objectives and used a simple scoring system to indicate how many of those objectives were met.

4.2 The objectives considered were:

4.3 The list of scored schemes were then presented at the spring round of Highway and Transport Advisory Panel meetings for local Members to consider and make recommendations with regard to scheme priorities.

4.4 The schemes shown in the appendix are those identified by the Highway and Transport Advisory Panels as the highest priorities in each district and recommended for incorporation into the 2005/06 Minor Works Programme.

Recommendations

1. That, following the spring 2005 Highway and Transport Advisory Panel meetings for local Members to consider and make recommendations with regard to scheme priorities, approval be given to proceed with the design and construction of the Provisional Minor Works 2005/06 programme as set out in the appendix.

2. That the scheme limit be raised to £25,000.

3. That the need for individual project appraisals on schemes valued between £10,000-£25,000 under the Under £10,000 programme be withdrawn and replaced with project statements as set out in paragraph 2.2 of this report.

4. The budget is provisionally allocated to projects pending consideration of alternatives to achieve 2.5% efficiency savings on projects and programmes, work with the local communities and more detailed design work.

285/TM

APPENDIX