Agenda and minutes

The Head of Governance and Law advised that there had been a misunderstanding over the start time of 11.00am for the meeting and advised that the meeting had been abandoned in terms of Standing Order 4.3.  At 12.30pm the Group agreed to suspend Standing Order 4.3 and the meeting resumed.

The Head of Governance and Law apologised to Members for the confusion and thanked Members for rescheduling at short notice.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Mary Jean Devon.

There were no declarations of interest intimated.

Short Life Working Group – Roads Asset Management and Maintenance Strategy held on 28 January 2013

The Minutes of the meeting of the Short Life Working Group – Roads Asset Management and Maintenance Strategy held on 28 January 2013 were approved as a correct record subject to noting the misunderstanding over the start time of 11am for the 11 March 2013 meeting under item 9.

Live demonstration/workshop with WDM to see prioritisation of schemes based on the three options being considered by the Short Life Working Group

The Short Life Working Group were given a demonstration on the WDM system showing the existing roads hierarchy in the Argyll and Bute Area illustrated on a map.  The system indicated the status of the roads in terms of maintenance with the use of colour coding with red showing roads in need of repair and green showing the roads which were not in need of any repair.  This system allowed Officers to manage and maintain the road network in a more effective and efficient way.

Decision

The Short Life Working Group noted the demonstration they were given on the WDM system.

(Reference:  Demonstration on WDM System by Jamie McLafferty, Technical Assistant)

Consideration to be given regarding changes to the hierarchy and response time – existing Plan attached

Consideration was given to a report which briefed the Short Life Working Group on the purpose of the roads hierarchy and which proposed changes to the existing hierarchy which had been developed in 2004.

Consideration was also given to a report tabled at the meeting which briefed the Short Life Working Group on defect definition and response times in the context of a risk management and long term value for money approach.

A brief recess was taken to allow Members further time to consider the reports.

Decision

The Short Life Working Group -

In terms of roads hierarchy; agreed to recommend to the Council -

1. To adopt the new proposed roads hierarchy, subject to caveats which would  provide a degree of flexibility for ongoing review and with the following amendments to the draft as detailed at 3.7 of the report –

·         Change “Local Plan” to “Local Development Plan” throughout.

·         Under rank one add the A819 to the list of roads under detailed description.

·         Under rank 3 consideration to be given by Officers to the replacement of the word lightly with a more appropriate word under detailed description.

2. To instruct Officers to re-categorise the roads in Argyll and Bute into this hierarchy for consideration by the four Area Committees before September 2013.

3. To suspend operation of the Short Life Working Group until such time as the new roads hierarchy has been considered by the four Area Committees and thereafter the Short Life Working Group would take into consideration the new hierarchy and comments by Area Committees with a view to assessing  the effects on the budget process and the prioritisation of capital funding for the financial year 2014/15.

4. That a further report be provided to the Council in October 2013.

In terms of road defects and response times; noted that this did not entirely fall under the remit of the Short Life Working Group but agreed recommend to the Council -

1. To approve the proposed Category 1 pothole definitions subject to simplification of the language and changes to the chart layout.

2. To approve the maximum response time for category 1 defects being increased to 5 working days to facilitate more economic use of resources and higher quality repairs.

3. That the revised approach should be supported by a publicity strategy.

(Reference:  Additional reports (2) by Head of Roads and Amenity Services dated 8 March 2013, tabled)

Report by Head of Roads and Amenity Services

Consideration was given to a report which set out the reduction in road maintenance revenue activities that would be delivered in 2013/14 and 2014/15 as a result of reduced revenue budget provision.  The report detailed the Roads Operations Revenue Budget in line with the Roads Maintenance and Asset Management Plan.

Decision

The Short Life Working Group noted the report.

(Reference:  Report by Head of Roads and Amenity Services dated 28 February 2013, submitted)

Live demonstration of work in progress

The Short Life Working Group were given a demonstration on the WDM system proposing how all maintenance works carried out to the roads network would be recorded on the system in the future with a view to better management and forward planning for roads maintenance treatments over the life cycle of a road.  This mechanism would allow Officers to build up a picture of the types of works e.g. gully clearance, required on a road and costs involved over the life of a road and would allow them to project costs and forward plan treatments to prevent roads from falling into a bad state of repair.  This mechanism was in the early stages of development and an accompanying document, in draft form, was currently being produced for consideration at departmental management level.

Decision

The Short Life Working Group noted the demonstration.

(Reference:  Demonstration by Jamie McLafferty, Technical Assistant)

It was agreed that the next meeting would be held on Tuesday 2 April 2013 at 11.00am and that consideration would be given to a draft report containing the Short Life Working Group’s recommendations to the Council.