Issue - meetings

This report sets out recommendations for how Brent’s £3.55m capital budget should be allocated during 2016/17 through a prioritised programme of:

·        Major and minor pavement upgrades;

·        Major Road resurfacing;

·        Preventative maintenance;

·        Improvements to the public realm, and

·        Renewal of Road Markings

(i)         that investment of £3.55m of Brent capital funding as summarised in Section 6.0 of the submitted report be approved;

(ii)        that the proposed highways maintenance programme for 2016-17 as detailed in Appendix B of the submitted report be approved.

Councillor Southwood, Cabinet Member for Environment, introduced the report stating that in 2015/16 approximately £4.629m would be spent improving the condition of Brent’s highways, including resurfacing of 9.5 miles of road and 4.3 miles of pavement. This equated to 3% of the road network and less than 1% of the pavements. The investment included £3.55m of Brent capital and £1.079k of TfL capital funding for principal (A road) maintenance.

She stated that, during 2016/17, it was proposed to allocate £3.55m of Brent capital to maintain the highway network, subject to approval of the Budget and Council Tax report to be submitted to Cabinet and Full Council in February 2016.

In addition to £3.55m of Brent capital, TfL have on 22 December 2015 confirmed funding of £0.901m of Principal Road (A-road) improvements. This was a decrease against the 2015/16 Principal road programme value of £1.079 m.

Councillor Southwood stated that the report set out recommendations for how Brent’s £3.55m capital budget should be allocated during 2016/17.

The programme criteria has been shaped in discussion with elected members and would be delivered using Brent’s Highway Asset Management Planning (HAMP) approach, which provided a systematic long term methodology for maintaining the borough’s highways. The HAMP approach, which was started in 2014/15, will deliver better value for money through adoption of a sensible and forward thinking maintenance plan.

Councillor Southwood stated, in line with public and elected member priorities, further investment in the roads and pavement network would also be considered this year to improve our performance and reduce reliance on reactive maintenance. Future proposals and priorities to cover a medium term (up to 5 years) approach will see more miles of road maintained each year and our customers would have greater visibility as to the relative status of their roads. As such proposals for 2017/18 priorities would be submitted to a later meeting of the Cabinet as part of this ongoing process. Furthermore the outcome based review of the physical, social and environmental regeneration, which has just begun, would seek to secure greater strategic alignment between the council’s vision and its investments in the borough’s infrastructure.

Councillor Southwood stated that future investment would be aimed also to address the following: achieving greater equality in condition between footways and carriageways; addressing localised conditions in an area patching programme to extend the life of roads; accommodating members’ requests for regenerating high streets by giving them greater priority, so improving their look and feel; and consideration of alternative materials, for instance replacing slabs with tarmac when doing full footway renewals.

Councillor Southwood stated that all this will be set out in greater detail in the future “Investment in Highways Report”.

In response to a question from Councillor Duffy, Kilburn Ward, Conrad Hall, Chief Finance Officer, agreed to circulate a briefing to Members about a previous one off central government grant of £300,000.

Councillor Pavey, Deputy Leader, welcomed the changes to the process in comparison with previous years.

RESOLVED:

(i)         that investment of £3.55m of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 11