Agenda and minutes

There were none on this occasion.

RESOLVED – That the minutes of the Prosperous Staffordshire Select Committee meeting held on 12 February 2014 be confirmed and signed by the Chairman.

Report of the Scrutiny and Support Manager

Under the Council’s Petition Scheme, Senior Officers are required to

give evidence about the issues raised by petitions with over 2,500

signatures. A petition with 2,915 signatures has been received

about the proposed removal of the Library, Gallery and other facilities from the Shire Hall and sale of the building.

The Select Committee considered the report of the Scrutiny and Support Manager on the petition over the proposed removal of the library, gallery and other facilities from the Shire Hall and the sale of the building. The petition had 2,915 signatures, made up of 1960 hand written signatures and 955 signatures from the e-petition. The Select Committee heard that under the Council’s Petition Scheme named senior officers were required to attend Scrutiny Committee meetings to give evidence about the issues raised by petitions with over 2,500 signatures.

The Chairman gave Mrs M Compton, lead petitioner and Local Member, the opportunity to address the Select Committee with her concerns.

Mrs Compton reminded the Select Committee that the draft Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) considered by Cabinet in December referred to a proposal for the relocation of the Shire Hall Library into Staffordshire Place (SP) and subsequently vacating the Shire Hall building. Mrs Compton informed Members of the rationale behind the use of the Shire Hall as the central Stafford library, creating a cultural quarter (the Library, Theatre, Gallery and William Salt Library) in the centre of Stafford. She reminded Members that the Shire Hall was an asset with the library based on three floors, with a large music collection and a number of small rooms that were well used for study and research, particularly by students. A large number of activities were held in the library, including most recently activities around World Book Day. The building also provided a sensory room which was well used by local families and a café. The old Court rooms were an asset of local historic interest which were also regularly used by theatre groups.

The Shire Hall was a much loved and well used grade 2 listed building. Following the draft MTFS report to Cabinet in December the proposal had been picked up by local newspapers and radio. Mrs Compton shared concerns over reported comments from Cabinet Members that they were comfortable with the Shire Hall being sold for retail, licensed premises or a hotel.

Mrs Compton also shared the views of some of those who had contacted her with their concerns, including that:

·        the building was nationally recognised for its architecture and had been well restored. This work would be wasted should the building be sold;

·        the County Council should be enhancing facilities in the Town Centre;

·        it would be detrimental to the people of Stafford;

·        the SP building was soulless and would have a detrimental effect on the library service;

·        the proposal to move the library was due to the Council being unable to fill the space with retail as they had originally planned.

At the 13 February Council meeting and in response to a question from Mrs Compton, the Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance, Resources and Transformation had confirmed that no decision had been taken to sell the Shire Hall. Mrs Compton asked for confirmation that this meant the Shire Hall would not be sold and therefore the cultural quarter  ...  view the full minutes text for item 45.

Report of the Cabinet Member, Economy and Infrastructure

[Mr Philip Atkins, Council Leader, in attendance for this item as local member.]

Proposals to improve the A50 in Uttoxeter had been announced by the Government as part of the National Infrastructure Plan and in the Autumn Statement in December 2013. The improvements were in response to existing congestion on the A50 and emerging proposals for residential and business growth in and around the town.

The A50 is a trunk road managed by the Highways Agency (HA), with management  of the A50 sub-contracted to Connect Roads, a subsidiary of Balfour Beatty. The HA had agreed that the County Council would be their delivery partner, responsible for delivering the developments through two distinct infrastructure projects.

Project A, Western Grade Separated Junction, included construction of a new grade separated junction to the west of Uttoxeter. This would be the first project developed and would provide access to the proposed housing and employment site to the north of the A50. This project would require its own planning application and compulsory purchase order, and be delivered under a separate construction contract.

Project B, Eastern Grade Separated Junction, was to configure the existing Dove Way bridge over the A50 by converting it to a grade separated junction. This would involve constructing new roundabouts at each end of the existing bridge and slip roads down to the A50 carriageway. The development would also include closing the two “at grade” roundabouts in Uttoxeter, in the centre of Uttoxeter adjacent to McDonalds and the roundabout to the east of Uttoxeter adjacent to the Premier Inn Hotel.

Mr Philip Atkins, Leader of the Council, addressed the Select Committee in his capacity as one of the Local Members for this area. He congratulated the Officers for the work they had undertaken, including the consultation events, and for the speed at which the scheme had advanced. Some businesses would be affected but this should be addressed in the valuation process. The scheme would be a great benefit, in particular for businesses such as Alton Towers, Toyota and Rolls Royce, improving the East West access route.

Select Committee Members welcomed this development and the jobs creation that was expected as a result. Some concern was expressed at the closure of the JCB factory in Rugeley and the movement of this work to the East Staffordshire factory, with a hope that there would be the opportunity for job relocation rather than job losses for the Rugeley based work force.

RESOLVED – That the proposals to improve the A50 in Uttoxeter be supported.

Presentation of the Cabinet Member, Economy and Infrastructure

The Select Committee received a presentation by James Bailey, Commissioner for Highways and the Built County, on highways and the Built County Capital Programme, giving consideration to how this was evaluated to ensure best value.

The Programme looked at investment in connection with the provision of new or existing infrastructure. Members received details of capital grant funding for both maintenance and integrated transport. The two components were not ring fenced and were therefore locally determined subject to Cabinet approval. Following a similar presentation to the then Assets and Budget Scrutiny Committee in November 2010, authority to sign off the Annual Programme had been delegated to the appropriate Cabinet Member, currently the Cabinet Member, Economy and Infrastructure.

There was a 5% top slice from the maintenance element to support other County Council programmes. However the grant level had stayed relatively stable over the last five years. The County Council had invested a further £50m for maintenance over this period, however this extra investment had now concluded and therefore next year funding would revert back to historic levels from Central Government grant alone.

Staffordshire was at the forefront of Asset Management Plan development with regard to highway maintenance. Preventative maintenance offered the most effective use of resources over the assets lifecycle, with the Council’s maintenance strategy set out in its Transport Asset Management Plan (TAMP). Members heard that the optimum capital investment for Staffordshire was circa £30m per annum, which was significantly above the grant funding received and Members received details of the proposed allocation for capital maintenance in 2014/15.

The Staffordshire Local Transport Plan gave a framework for local infrastructure and prioritised individual projects that addressed specific needs. The Plan considered economic prosperity, road safety, connectivity, health and quality of life and localism. Within the Plan four existing projects received £3.6m of the £6.2m funding allocation.

Members received details of Leverage funding allocation, including a breakdown of allocation and the benefit generated. This included in respect of:

·        The Government Pinch Point Programme

·        Emerging Local Enterprise Partnership priorities re economic development and regeneration, eg i54 South Staffs and A34 Redhill Business Park

·        Local Sustainable Transport Fund North Staffs and Stafford Sustainable Transport packages;

·        Pedal Peak: Caldon canal towpath improvement; and

·        Developer led schemes secured via s.278/s.106 planning conditions, eg Tesco Rugeley and MoD Beaconside, Stafford.

The Select Committee received details of the Divisional Highway Programme (DHP)  and how this addressed locally identified priorities.

Staffordshire was in the lowest quartile of local Council’s for revenue expenditure whilst achieving above average customer satisfaction. Staffordshire also had the safest County Council road network in the Country for the third year running based on the Department of Transport calculation of the number of accidents relative to use and extent of the network.

Members asked how the Infrastructure+ contract would add value and were informed that value would be added via:

·        offering an end-to-end  service to mitigate the impact and support inward investment from private developers into Staffordshire;

·        helping to reduce operating costs that would enable  ...  view the full minutes text for item 47.

Presentation of the Cabinet Member, Economy and Infrastructure

The Select Committee received a presentation from Ian Turner, Head of Place Delivery Ventures, on the quality of road maintenance.  Members were informed that quality was measured through:

·        customer insight surveys and reputation tracker, with quality of the road network being a key issue for residents, it being a very visible service;

·        road condition indicators, using visual surveys accredited to national standards;

·        the National Highways and Transportation survey conducted by MORI;

·        defect number, with all defects on the highway recorded; and

·        customer contact.

Members received details of the works budgets, with pot holes being 11% of the works budget, general repairs accounting for 8% whilst street lighting was 40%. Members heard that the street lighting allocation was due mainly to the necessity to update dangerous lighting stock which was currently being undertaken through a Private Finance Initiative (PFI).

Members considered the CIPFA service comparison chart which highlighted that Staffordshire had the second lowest expenditure (based on the length of highway and its use) whilst being the fourth County Council in the country for performance.

A breakdown of highways defects in 2013 was received,  and the comparison with previous years. On the whole the number of potholes identified related to the severity of weather conditions, ie how cold and wet conditions had been that year. Members also received a breakdown of the top ten areas for customer contact in 2013, with potholes accounting for 32% of this.

“A Well Maintained Highway” was the code of practice that each Highways Authority worked towards, identifying good practice. Defects were categorised around urgency of the required repair and categorisation was usually established following an inspection of the reported fault. Where a member of the public had reported a fault an inspection would be made to assess the defect and potential risk to the public.

There were a number of repair techniques including:

·        temporary, where a quick repair was undertaken to make a defect safe;

·        semi-permanent, such as pothole repairs;

·        roadmaster, which gave a more sympathetic and substantial repair;

·        gang make-up, with consideration to the type of repair and equipment required and the best way to ensure high productivity where costly repairs were addressed;

·        materials, ensuring the right materials were used for specific repairs. It was also important to keep abreast of the latest techniques and materials available.

The Select Committee saw examples of a range of equipment and style of work relative to the required repair and were shown images of typical road condition photographs and how these would be dealt with.

The different treatments available for repairs had different lifecycles and Members received details of these and their costs.

Members remained concerned that in some circumstances a category one pothole was repaired, with the team moving on without repairing other potholes in the vicinity because they were not as severe a categorisation. Whilst recognising the frustration this may cause it was important to ensure the most severe defects were dealt with first rather than repairing all in a street, additionally different equipment  ...  view the full minutes text for item 48.

The Scrutiny and Support Manager informed Members of the following proposed amendments to their Work Programme:

·        A briefing note on the minerals local plan would be sent to Members shortly with an expectation that the plan would come to Committee on 24 April;

·        The further report on achieving excellence: libraries in a connected Staffordshire, was expected to come to the Select Committee on 2 June, alternatively an extra meeting late in May would need to be arranged;

·        Mr Tittley would be meeting with officers to discuss the issue of the Freight Policy and a decision would then be taken as to whether this should be a substantive item to the select Committee; and

·        Following requests by Members items had been added to the work programme on: Entrust; Flood risk management; Shugborough; and Concessionary travel.

RESOLVED – That the amendments to the Work Programme be agreed.