Contact: Michael Rolfe, tel 01730 235817 email: [email protected]

1. Summary

1.1 This report outlines:

(i) progress with the 2005/06 Highway Maintenance Programme;

(ii) details of the 2005/06 Capital Minor Works Programme;

(iii) details of the 2006/07 Highway Maintenance Budget;

(iv) details of the 2006/07 Highway Maintenance Programme; and

(v) details of the 2006/07 Capital Minor Works Programme.

2. Background

2.1 Members may be aware from previous Panel meetings that the highway maintenance programme is funded from both revenue and capital allocations.

2.2 The revenue maintenance programme funds:

(i) minor works such as pothole repairs;

(ii) routine drainage work including gully cleansing;

(iii) signs and road markings;

(iv) environmental maintenance of grass verges, trees and shrubs;

(v) weed control; and

(vi) highway emergencies.

2.3 Minor bridgeworks and winter maintenance are also funded from revenue. Budget allocations are set at a level that ensures the safety of the highway network.

2.4 The capital maintenance programme funds planned maintenance, including special maintenance, resurfacing and surface dressing, and also provides for essential repairs to the structure of the highway.

2.5 Members of the public can contact the highways offices on 0845 8504422. The Hampshire Highways website http://www.hants.gov.uk/highways/ contains a wide range of information relating to highway works; including highway policies, factsheets on various highway activities and also online forms for reporting defects and requesting services, such as dropped crossings for driveways.

3. Progress with the 2005/06 Highways Maintenance Programme

Revenue Maintenance Programme

3.1 The total allocation for East Hampshire for 2005/06 was £736,000. Progress throughout the year has generally been in line with the spend profile. It is expected that the overall programme will be completed within time and budget constraints. A budget monitoring statement is included within Appendix 1.

Capital Maintenance Programme

3.2 The total allocation for East Hampshire for 2005/06 was £1,248,000, which included additional support from the extra £3.678 million county-wide funding for Highways Maintenance. It is expected that the overall programme will be completed within time and budget constraints. A budget monitoring statement is included within Appendix 1.

3.3 A status report detailing progress of all special maintenance, resurfacing and surface dressing schemes is attached as Appendix 2.

4. 2006/07 Highway Maintenance Budget

4.1 The overall Highway Maintenance budget for 2006/07 will not be approved by the Executive Member for Environment: South Hampshire and Resource Management until 21 March, so no precise figures can yet be published. However, it is understood that the allocation for the East Hampshire area will be generally in line with the funding provided in the current (2005/06) financial year.

4.2 Appendix 3 sets out a provisional allocation for East Hampshire Revenue and Capital funded works, but these may be subject to amendment when the budget is approved.

5. 2006/07 Highway Maintenance Programme

Revenue Maintenance Programme

5.1 As described above, the revenue maintenance programme funds three main areas of highway maintenance:

(i) reactive minor repair works on the road and footway network;

(ii) minor traffic management improvements of signs and road markings; and

(iii) environmental aspects of highway maintenance, including grass cutting, weed treatment and tree and shrub maintenance.

5.2 The provisional allocation for East Hampshire in 2006/07 is £792,000, as set out in Appendix 3.

5.3 Additional revenue budgets are held centrally for the performance elements of the County Council's term maintenance contract. The performance based work contained in the contract includes:

(i) gully emptying;

(ii) visibility splay grass cutting;

(iii) winter maintenance; and

(iv) ordinary bridge maintenance.

Capital Maintenance Programme

5.4 The funding allocation for the capital maintenance programme is based on the Highway Assessment Maintenance Priorities (HAMP) rating system and will reflect the agreed intervention levels. Under this HAMP system, an independent assessment is carried out at each site that has been submitted for a maintenance scheme, with a score being placed against each relevant factor - including the importance of the road, the amount of traffic and pedestrians using it, the degree of damage observed, and the potential danger that this might cause if remedial action is delayed. The higher the total score, the greater the "need". The funding available county-wide is allocated to the proposed works, starting with those having the highest score and working down to a cut-off level at which the funding is exhausted. Thus the funding is directed to those works displaying a higher `maintenance need'. Details of the 2006/07 provisional allocations are set out in Appendix 3.

5.5 The East Hampshire Area Highways team has been very successful over the past few years in putting forward schemes with high needs scoring, which has seen considerable funding being made available for this area, but in the coming year a significant number of bids with very high needs values have been made by other Highways teams, so the proportion of the budget coming to the East Hampshire area will fall considerably compared with some past years.

5.6 As in recent years, some additional funding has been allocated specifically for resurfacing of carriageways and footway works, which has permitted the cut-off for special maintenance and resurfacing bids to be set at a lower level. For the 2006/07 year, £2.989 million has been made available across the county as a whole. The proportion for highways in the East Hampshire area is £135,000.

5.7 Planned structural maintenance repairs undertaken through the capital maintenance programme include surface dressing, special maintenance and resurfacing schemes. The provisional list of schemes under each of these headings for 2006/07 is attached as Appendix 4. Five extra schemes in the East Hampshire area can now be carried out, paid for by the £135,000 allocated from the additional county-wide funding. These five schemes are marked with an asterisk* in Appendix 4.

5.8 The capital maintenance programme also supports the centrally controlled areas of work, including major maintenance schemes and bridge maintenance.

5.9 It is to be noted that revised Health and Safety regulations are increasingly rendering it necessary to impose a Temporary Road Closure Order at many sites where maintenance work is to be undertaken. The width of roadway remaining after providing the required barriers and safety zones around the work location is often insufficient to permit even alternate flows of traffic with traffic signals. This applies particularly to all forms of kerbing work, where manual lifting of any kerbstones is no longer permissible.

6. The Capital Minor Works Programme

6.1 The Capital Minor Works Programme (also known as the Under £10,000 Programme) is funded from the capital allocation based on the Local Transport Plan submission to the Department for Transport. In the 2004/05 programme £200,000 was allocated county-wide, of which £19,000 was allocated to the East Hampshire district area. The schemes in the programme, which have now been constructed, are:

(i) U212 Long Road Steep - provision of a new footway;

(ii) C36 Bentworth Road, Bentworth - a new footpath link;

(iii) C154 School Lane Sheet - an extended footway; and

(iv) C86 Dean Lane and Finchdean Road, Rowlands Castle - construction of a hard footway in place of the current gravel one.

6.2 The funding allocation for the 2006/07 programme county-wide has been reduced and, subject to final confirmation of the budget, it is anticipated that only £12,000 will be available in the East Hampshire area. This will enable only one scheme to be implemented within the East Hampshire area during this financial year.

Proposals for 2006/07 Programme

6.3 The Capital Minor Works rolling programme is compiled from suggestions made by elected Members, the Police, Parish Councils, Residents' Associations, members of the public and Mobility Groups, etc. A schedule of the schemes under consideration for the East Hampshire area is given in Appendix 5.

7. Impact Assessments

7.1 This report provides a position statement only, therefore an impact assessment, in terms of the Race Relations (Amendment) Act, has not been undertaken.

Recommendations

1. That the sections of this report on Highway Maintenance (Sections 2 to 5) be noted.

2. That Members select three schemes from the list given in Appendix 5 that they consider should be given priority, approve the allocation of funding to these schemes and that the Executive Member for Environment be advised accordingly.

767/MR

APPENDIX 1

HAMPSHIRE HIGHWAYS EAST HAMPSHIRE

Revenue Budget 2005/06

Routine Maintenance (carriageway, footway repairs) £381,000

Gully Cleansing £30,000

District Managed Grass £129,000

Aids to Movement (lines and signs) £66,000

Environmental (grass, trees, shrubs) £72,000

Weed Control £38,000

Hazard Clearance £20,000

Total: £736,000

Capital Budget 2005/06 Principal Roads

Principal Roads Routine Structural Repairs £40,000

Principal Roads Special Maintenance £39,000

Principal Roads Resurfacing £84,000

Total: £163,000

Capital Budget 2005/06 Non-Principal Roads

Non-Principal Roads Routine Structural Repairs £393,000

Non-Principal Roads Special Maintenance £294,000

Non-Principal Roads Resurfacing £331,000

Non-Principal Roads Tactile Paving Crossing Points £7,000

Total: £1,025,000

Total Maintenance Budget Allocation East Hampshire £1,924,000

APPENDIX 2

SPECIAL MAINTENANCE AND RESURFACING PROGRAMME 2005/06

Special Maintenance (Principal Roads)

Special Maintenance (Non-Principal Roads)

Surface Dressing (Group 2 High Performance)

Surface Dressing (Group 3 Minor Roads)

Footways Surface Dressing

Resurfacing (Principal Roads)

Resurfacing (Non-Principal Roads)

APPENDIX 3

2006/07 Provisional Funding Allocation

The precise allocations have yet to be agreed and announced. However, it is expected that the budgets for Highways Maintenance will be as follows:

Revenue Budget 2006/07

Main Allocation

Routine Maintenance (carriageway, footway repairs) £372,000

Gully Cleansing £31,000

District Grass Cutting £148,000

Aids to Movement (lines and signs) £65,000

Environmental (grass, trees, shrubs) £72,000

Weed Control £38,000

Hazard Clearance £66,000

Total: £792,000

Capital Budget - Principal Roads

Principal Roads Routine Structural Repairs £ 47,000

Principal Roads Special Maintenance £120,000

Principal Roads Resurfacing £ 75,000

Total: £242,000

Capital Budget - Non-Principal Roads

Non-Principal Roads Routine Structural Repairs £403,000

Non-Principal Roads Special Maintenance £139,000

Non-Principal Roads Resurfacing £235,000

Non-Principal Roads Tactile Paving Crossing Points £ 7,000

Total: £784,000

Total Maintenance Budget Allocation East Hampshire £1,818,000

APPENDIX 4

2006/07 PROVISIONAL SPECIAL MAINTENANCE, RESURFACING AND SURFACE DRESSING SCHEMES

As the allocations have yet to be finally agreed and announced, the lists of schemes given below is provisional.

Special Maintenance (Principal Roads)

Special Maintenance (Non-Principal Roads)

* extra schemes as part of the county-wide allocation of £2.989 million additional funding

Surface Dressing (Group 2 High Performance)

Surface Dressing (Group 3 Minor Roads)

Footways Surface Dressing

Programme yet to be formulated

Resurfacing (Principal Roads)

Resurfacing (Non-Principal Roads)

* extra schemes as part of the county-wide allocation of £2.989 million additional funding