Issue - meetings

BCP Council must bring into operation a Street Works Permit system in lieu of its existing noticing system. 

This report follows the Cabinet report in October and reports on the results of the consultation carried out with all statutory consultees, with recommendations of the permit conditions to be applied for the new BCP Council Street Works Permit Scheme, taking into consideration the responses received.

RESOLVED that:-

(a)          Cabinet approve the conditions to be applied to the BCP Council Street Works Permit Scheme, as described in the attached document, Appendix 2;

(b)          Cabinet delegate authority to the Director of Legal and Democratic Services to make the necessary Legal Order to bring the permit scheme into operation. 

Voting: Unanimous

Portfolio Holder: Transport and Infrastructure

Reasons

DfT require all Local Authorities to introduce a Street Works Permit scheme by April 2020, or as soon as practicably possible thereafter; the approved permit conditions for such a scheme and necessary legal order are required to bring this into operation.

The Portfolio Holder for Transport and Infrastructure presented a report, a copy of which had been circulated to each Member and a copy of which appears as Appendix 'D' to these Minutes in the Minute Book.

Cabinet were requested to consider approval to bring into operation a Street Works Permit system in lieu of its existing noticing system. In relation to this Cabinet were informed that this report followed the Cabinet report in October and reports on the results of the consultation carried out with all the statutory consultees, with recommendations of the permit conditions to be applied for the new BCP Council Street Works Permit Scheme, taking into consideration the responses received.

In presenting the report the Portfolio Holder for Transport and Infrastructure advised that following discussion at the recent Overview and Scrutiny Board and queries raised that the table of charges had been circulated.

The Vice Chairman of the Overview and Scrutiny Board addressed Cabinet thanking the Portfolio Holder for the circulation of the fees and charges and informing Cabinet that at the recent meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Board members had resolved that Cabinet be recommended to modify the street works permitting scheme to include a clause requiring that any works undertaken are subject to follow up inspection and a requirement to make good the road surface or footway to a sufficient standard, in order to ensure that this standard remains in place for an agreed period of time.

In relation to the above the Portfolio Holder advised that it would be difficult to have officers check on the holes are each works had been completed, as this would be very time consuming and labour intensive.  Further to this Cabinet were advised that works under 1.5m in depth had a 2 year guarantee, and works over 1.5m had a 3 year guarantee.

A Councillor addressed Cabinet stressing that there had been problems in the past with getting issues reported in time, and questioning whether it would be possible for an officer to complete a visual check whilst on their way to other jobs. Further to this the Councillor questioned whether if there is a list of all the works and when they run out of guarantee is an officer not checking these before the time period of the guarantee runs out?

The Leader highlighted the time, capacity and budget constraints of an officer visually checking each works following completion. In relation to this the Leader questioned whether Councillors could receive a list of permitted schemes once a month by ward, this would enable Ward Councillors to know when repairs were happening and to carry out the checks themselves whilst carrying out their ward work. In relation to this the Leader requested the Portfolio Holder explore this issue.

The Portfolio Holder advised that the department were currently going through a migration of systems but that officers had seemed positive that a retrospective list would be possible.

RESOLVED that:-

(a)          Cabinet approve the conditions to be applied to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 143

To consider the following transport and infrastructure related reports scheduled for Cabinet consideration on 18 March 2020:

·                     BCP Council Parking Charges Harmonisation – NOTE: This item will now be dealt with by way of an officer decision, however the Chairman has agreed that there should still be an opportunity for the O&S Board to ask questions on this item. A verbal update will be provided at the meeting.

·                     Street Works Permitting Scheme

The O&S Board is asked to scrutinise the reports and make recommendations to Cabinet as appropriate.

Cabinet member invited to attend for this item: Councillor Andy Hadley, Portfolio Holder for Transport and Infrastructure.

The Cabinet report will be published on Tuesday 10 March and available to view at the following link: https://democracy.bcpcouncil.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=285&MId=3727&Ver=4

Car Parking Charges Harmonisation

Board Members and members of the public and press were reminded that this report would not be considered at this meeting and would be scheduled for a future meeting.

Streetworks Permitting Scheme

The Portfolio Holder for Transport and Infrastructure presented a report, a copy of which had been circulated to each Member and a copy of which appears as Appendix 'B' to these Minutes in the Minute Book.

The Portfolio Holder explained that the proposals were put forward to ensure that the council complied with statutory requirements to have a mechanism for controlling streetworks on the highway in order to reduce congestion and disruption to residents when works were undertaken on the traffic network and would involve the council issuing permits and levying a charge to ensure that the administrative costs were covered. It was anticipated that a minimum of six staff would be needed to administer the scheme, although there was provision for a further three staff members, if required.

The Portfolio Holder explained that all companies that were involved with statutory undertakings had been consulted with and the scheme had been adjusted based on comments received.

The Portfolio Holder and Corporate Director for Regeneration and Economy responded to questions and comments from Board Members.

The Portfolio Holder was asked about the maximum charge being applicable to all roads, which did not seem necessary when taking small residential roads or cul-de-sacs into account. It was explained that there was a historic road layout problem across the conurbation, caused in part by Poole and Bournemouth having been in different counties until the mid- 1970’s, meaning that the road network did not “join up”. There was a recognition that the conurbations network was at capacity and therefore any closure or disruption on one part of the network would have an affect on other routes. The scheme was designed to be inclusive and the Council was required to adopt such a scheme.

The Portfolio Holder was asked about how the scheme would provide an opportunity to improve the current situation, which often found a section of highway being dug up multiple times to undertake different works. It was explained that this scheme would be giving a discount to utility companies that undertook works together, a lead company would take responsibility but would receive a 30% discount as an encouragement to work together with the aim of causing less disruption, although it was acknowledged that this may, on occasion, complicate matters. The flip-side to any complication that it would cause contractors is that the Council would have more control over works, have a greater knowledge of who was responsible and therefore it would be easier to enforce any further remedial works that need to take place in the event that initial remedial works were not up to standard.

The Portfolio Holder was asked about the inspection of roads once works had been undertaken, details of fines that would be issued if works were not completed to standard and discounts  ...  view the full minutes text for item 135