Agenda and minutes

(Assistant to the Chief Executive) To report the appointment of any substitute members for the meeting.

There were no substitute members for the meeting.

(Assistant to the Chief Executive) To declare interests in any item on this agenda.

There were no declarations of interest pursuant to the Council’s Code of Member Conduct.

To confirm the minutes of the last meeting of the Committee held on 21 July 2009.

            RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the meeting held on 21 July 2009 be taken as read and signed by the Chairman as a correct record.

There were no matters arising.

Attached.

That the terms of reference were noted.

The Director of Environment & Street Scene to report on the guidance manual that will accompany the new Highways form. (Attached)

This item would be dealt with in conjunction with the Programme of Works 2010/11 (item 12).

To note that the presentation on the Highways Maintenance Strategy will be deferred to a future meeting.

Noted that the presentation on the Highways Maintenance Strategy would be deferred until a future meeting.

Councillor R Bassett informed the panel that a copy of the Essex Highways Maintenance Strategy could be viewed on the following link;

Link to Essex Highways Maintenance Strategy

The Essex Highways Officer to report.

The panel received a presentation from the West Essex Highways Liaison Officer, Rosa Tanfield reporting on highways issues within the Epping Forest District. The report had been intended to provide the panel with sufficient information on schemes that would enable decisions to be made on local priorities and allow the panel to offer suggestions and requests for future works in the Epping Forest District.

The Highways Liaison Officer advised that the report provided details of the approved programme of works for 2009/10, indicative start and completion dates for the maintenance and improvements, listed ‘seek and fix carriageway repairs’ and a summary of works that the Highways Rangers carried out recently and accompanied by works proposed for September/October 2009.

The Highways Liaison Officer advised the panel that additional funding of up to £1 million would be available across the County through the Highways Community Initiative Fund. Parish and Town Councils, Resident Associations and Community Organisations could make applications of £50,000 per scheme.

The application forms and guidance notes could be found available through the following link;

Link to community Initiatives fund website

All application forms would need to be submitted to the Area Highways Manger by the 6 November 2009 for assessment and following that eligible projects would be submitted to the Community Initiative Fund Co-ordinator for approval by a judging panel. The successful applications would be notified in March/April 2010. (CIF Application forms and Guidance notes attached).

Councillor R Frankel enquired what would happen to the works if slippage occurred into 2010/11 schedule. The Highways Liaison Officer advised that at present no slippage had occurred and it should not affect the future budget. Councillor R Frankel asked if the budget for 2010/11 had been agreed. The Highways Liaison Officer advised that at present the budget for 2010/11 had not been determined.  

The Highways Liaison Officer informed the panel that the consultation exercises for the area parking review for Buckhurst Hill had been completed and the consultation exercise for Loughton Broadway Area would commence shortly. The Epping parking review had been completed and an analysis of the responses would be carried out prior to recommendations being presented to EFDC.

Councillor Mrs P Richardson enquired about timescales for repair works reported through the ECC website. The Epping Forest District Manager, Trevor Baker informed the panel that a highways maintenance officer would visit the location to assess the works and make a decision based on the severity of the defect. Urgent repairs would be undertaken swiftly, albeit often on a temporary basis and less serious defects would be added to the list of outstanding works.

Councillor R Bassett advised that the draft Highways Maintenance Strategy provided response timescales for all types of maintenance works and illustrated how the works would be prioritised by Essex County Council. The draft Strategy could be viewed through the previously mentioned link.

            RESOLVED:

(1)   That the report of the Highways Liaison Officer be noted;

(2)   That the Highways Liaison Officer updates the panel on the schedule of works  ...  view the full minutes text for item 19.

The Essex Highways Officer to report on road safety.

The panel received a presentation from West Area Road Safety Officer, Elaine Beckett regarding the delivery of the Road Safety Plan and policies in Epping Forest District.

The Road Safety Officer delivered Educational Training including Pedestrian Walks for schools years 3 and 6, Theatre Education for year 9, Cyclist training, Reality Roadshows, the Crucial Crew and involved 80% of the Districts Schools in Travel Plans.

The training provided young people with information about road safety in an interesting way, involving various campaigns such as ‘Watch Your Speed’, Road Runner and ‘For My Girlfriend’. The campaigns varied to appeal to the range of age groups.

The Road Safety Officer advised that Epping Forest District had the highest figures for fatalities and serious injured casualties (KSIs) in Essex and that Officers had been working closely with Safer Communities Partnership to reduce the figure. The Essex Casualty Reduction Board had given £40,000 extra funding to tackle Road Safety issues with education and enforcement projects.

Councillor R Bassett advised that young people using the Debden Underground station caused problems when not using the road crossings provided. The Road Safety Officer advised that she would look into this and report back to the panel.

Councillor Stavrou enquired on the number of accidents involving animals within the District and whether the figures had been affected by this factor. The Road Safety Officer advised that she only had a total figure of accidents, but would breakdown the figures into causes and advise the panel at a future meeting.

The Road Safety Officer explained that the ECC campaign calendar followed in conjunction with national campaigns to increase the awareness.

The Road Safety team would be working throughout the District stopping drivers in key accident areas. Previous similar schemes resulted in the detection of offences relating to drink and drug, not wearing a seatbelts, mobile phone use and speeding. People stopped would be required, where appropriate, to speak to Road Safety Officers directly and view graphic accident videos to educate them of the potential dangers of their action.

Councillor A Purkiss enquired whether the Police records of speeding fines could be obtained, to identify where the speeding and dangerous driving occurs in the District. The Road Safety officer advised that the information would be obtained for the next meeting.

A number of schemes would also be running checks on HGV vehicles passing through the District and travelling on the M11 and M25.  

Councillor Boyce commented on the HGV drivers on rural roads causing problems and the unsuitability of the roads for the weight of the vehicles.

The Road Safety Officer informed the panel that the aim of the Road Safety team had been working towards reducing the accidents in the District and the links with the Highways Engineering and Maintenance Team, Accident Reduction schemes and training for Fire and Police officers helped.

The Essex Highways Officer to report on enforcement of dropped kerbs.

The Director of Environment and Street Scene Mr J Gilbert informed the panel that enforcement action on dropped kerbs had been taking place around the Districts Town Centres. He confirmed that any vehicles parked on dropped kerbs or on junctions within town centres would be issued with penalty notices.

Residential areas would be approached differently with enforcement action on dropped kerbs providing access to front gardens etc being taken only following a number of complaints. 

T Baker reported that this method had proved effective and word had spread about the enforcement action been taken.

To consider the preparation stages for 2010/11 programme of works.

The Director of Environment and Street Scene advised that a new methodology for the Highways Panel had been created because of the unsuitability of the P.I.C.K system. Guidance notes had been produced to help with the process and the forms would be placed onto the EFDC website.

The Highways Liaison Officer informed the panel that suggestions for schemes using the new Methodology should come through panel members and then channelled through one member of staff, the Assistant Director (Engineering Services), Qasim Durrani to ECC. Each of the Parishes would be allowed to submit three schemes.

Councillor Pond advised that three schemes per Parish would not be sufficient and that the timescale had been extremely tight for members to advise the Parishes they represent.

The Director of Environment and Street Scene suggested that Parishes be allowed to submit more than three schemes, but that they should identify three schemes as their key priorities, to ensure that ECC Officers workload and focus would be tailored to those of most significance within the Parish. The deadline allows for ECC Officers to properly address the submissions before presentation to the panel.

The process for the Highways Panel would require applications to be submitted to the EFDC representative by 13 November 2009 for consideration by ECC to feed back the responses to the Local Highways Panel on 24 November 2009. The panel would then be asked to discuss and prioritise the suggestions including the acceptance, deferment and rejection on the applications. The Area Highways Manager would then arrange for the feasibility analysis of the accepted suggestions. The outcomes and recommendations would then be presented to members on 26 January 2010, which would involve the confirmation and future progress of the schemes.

Councillor R Bassett conveyed that the Local Highways Panel had been recently set up and therefore it would be necessary to keep this process under review throughout the year. At present the budget for 2010/11 had not been set, consequently the initial course of action would be to establish the schemes of most importance and to commence the development of investigation and analysis in anticipation of the budgets.

            RESOLVED:

1)         That Parish Councils submit suggestions to the Assistant Director (Engineering Services) by the 13 November 2009 indicating their top three priority schemes.

2)         That the Highways Liaison Officer reports back to the panel the considered responses from ECC.

Councillor A Purkiss congratulated the Highways and Transportation, West Essex team on the progress that had been made recently. In addition he presented photographs of works to be investigated and enquired about the removal or replacement of signs and post throughout the District.

The Epping Forest District Manager advised that the issue of redundant posts arose in the main through theft of signs. They would be reviewing the replacement of signs and the need to remove redundant posts but there were limitations on what could be achieved within budget constraints.

Councillor R Bassett asked for the panel to consider works for the Highways Rangers to complete within the Parishes. He commented on the schedule being available so that a list of works could be assigned to the Highways Rangers from the Parishes.

            RESOLVED:

That the Highways Rangers schedule would be made available for Parish and Town Councils.

Tuesday 24 November 2009 in Council Chamber, Civic Offices, Epping.

Noted that the next meeting would be on Tuesday 24 November 2009 in the Council Chamber, Civic Offices, Epping.

Exclusion: To consider whether, under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public and press should be excluded from the meeting for the items of business set out below on grounds that they will involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in the following paragraph(s) of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act (as amended) or are confidential under Section 100(A)(2):

The Local Government (Access to Information) (Variation) Order 2006, which came into effect on 1 March 2006, requires the Council to consider whether maintaining the exemption listed above outweighs the potential public interest in disclosing the information. Any member who considers that this test should be applied to any currently exempted matter on this agenda should contact the proper officer at least 24 hours prior to the meeting.

Confidential Items Commencement: Paragraph 9 of the Council Procedure Rules contained in the Constitution require:

(1)        All business of the Council requiring to be transacted in the presence of the press and public to be completed by 10.00 p.m. at the latest.

(2)        At the time appointed under (1) above, the Chairman shall permit the completion of debate on any item still under consideration, and at his or her discretion, any other remaining business whereupon the Council shall proceed to exclude the public and press.

(3)        Any public business remaining to be dealt with shall be deferred until after the completion of the private part of the meeting, including items submitted for report rather than decision.

Background Papers:  Paragraph 8 of the Access to Information Procedure Rules of the Constitution define background papers as being documents relating to the subject matter of the report which in the Proper Officer's opinion:

(a)            disclose any facts or matters on which the report or an important part of the report is based;  and

(b)        have been relied on to a material extent in preparing the report and does not include published works or those which disclose exempt or confidential information (as defined in Rule 10) and in respect of executive reports, the advice of any political advisor.

Inspection of background papers may be arranged by contacting the officer responsible for the item.

The Sub-committee noted that there were no items of business on the agenda that necessitated the exclusion of the public and press from the meeting.