Agenda item

This report outlines the Council’s response to a petition received  on 30^th March 2017 entitled “Put an end to the Infrastructure problem on The Mall, Harrow (HA3 9TG)”. The petition was signed by 61 signatories.

RESOLVED that:

(i)         The petition which asked the Council to put an end to the Infrastructure problem on The Mall, Harrow (HA3 9TG) be noted;

(ii)        The long term nature of the drainage problem and the work being done with other agencies to solve the problem, be noted;

(iii)       The affordable solution proposed in the report to alleviate the vibration via the joints of the road being treated along the full length of The Mall and localised areas of reconstruction being carried out on the 15% of the road not deemed to be in ‘good’ condition, be approved. It was noted that the total approximate cost for this solution would be £80,000 and that the proposed scheme would be put forward for approval at Cabinet as part of the Highways Capital Maintenance Programme for 2018/19;

(iv)       Traffic speed surveys along The Mall to ascertain whether average speeds were consistent with the speed limit, be authorised. It was noted that should a speeding issue be identified, appropriate low cost remedial measures such as additional warning signs of SLOW carriageway markings, would be considered in the shorter term, and that these measures would be undertaken within existing budgets; and

(v)        Jonathan Westell (the Council’s Highway Contracts and Delivery Manager) would provide Councillor Colwill with details of the Ground Penetrating Radar Survey which had been completed on one section of The Mall, and provide information on the action that the Highways department took in response to the survey’s findings.

The Chair noted that Councillor Colwill (Leader of the Conservative Group; Kenton Ward) had requested to speak on the agenda item and invited him to do so at this stage. Councillor Colwill explained that he had assisted with the compilation of the petition and that residents were angry about the state of the road. He stated that an engineer from the Council had proposed a ground penetrating x-ray of the road to assess the damage caused by flooding but this had not happened. He emphasised that resident’s houses shook due to the traffic and that there had been no attempt to stop buses or Lorries from driving on the Mall. He also referenced the pavements on the road which remained a cause for concern because of the number of elderly residents who lived on The Mall.

Jonathan Westell responded and outlined that a Ground Penetrating Radar Survey had taken place in February 2017 on one particular section of the road where a crack had appeared. He specified that this section of the road had been cordoned off to allow repair work to take place. Mr Westell went on to inform Members about the cause for the vibration issues on the road (including noise vibrations and traffic hitting defects on the road surface) but highlighted that 85% of the Mall was in a ‘good’ condition. As such, he said that the Mall would not be a candidate for a complete resurfacing and, due to the Mall’s length, a complete resurface would be an extremely expensive outlay for the Council. He stated that the Highways team recognised that there were sections which required repair, and that the report proposed a medium term affordable solution to address the structural defects in the road in order to alleviate some of these problems.

Members questioned how long the proposed medium term solution was expected to last, and whether the condition of the road would continue to be monitored accordingly. Jonathan Westell explained that the solution proposed should endure for three to five years and assist with the vibration problem for residents. Tony Kennedy added that the road would continue to be monitored and the solution could be extended if deemed to be working well over the next one to two years. Members agreed that the proposed solution was appropriate given the budget constraints that the Council continued to face.

RESOLVED that:

(i)         The petition which asked the Council to put an end to the Infrastructure problem on The Mall, Harrow (HA3 9TG) be noted;

(ii)        The long term nature of the drainage problem and the work being done with other agencies to solve the problem, be noted;

(iii)       The affordable solution proposed in the report to alleviate the vibration via the joints of the road being treated along the full length of The Mall and localised areas of reconstruction being carried out on the 15% of the road not deemed to be in ‘good’ condition, be approved. It was noted that the total approximate cost for this solution would be £80,000 and that the proposed scheme would be put forward for approval at Cabinet as part of the Highways Capital Maintenance Programme for 2018/19;

(iv)       Traffic speed surveys along The Mall to ascertain whether average speeds were consistent with the speed limit, be authorised. It was noted that should a speeding issue be identified, appropriate low cost remedial measures such as additional warning signs of SLOW carriageway markings, would be considered in the shorter term, and that these measures would be undertaken within existing budgets; and

(v)        Jonathan Westell (the Council’s Highway Contracts and Delivery Manager) would provide Councillor Colwill with details of the Ground Penetrating Radar Survey which had been completed on one section of The Mall, and provide information on the action that the Highways department took in response to the survey’s findings.