MEMORANDUMDate: 15 MARCH 2005

______

To:All Members of the County CouncilFrom: County Secretary’s

All Chief Officers Department

Ask For: Nicola Hayden

Cc:Environment Officers)Ext: 25560

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ENVIRONMENT SCRUTINY COMMITTEE

15 MARCH 2005

ATTENDANCE

MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE

S A Batson, M V Bayes (Vice-Chairman), R S Clements, R N Copping, D J Drake, S E Jones, R Roberts, H M Saunders, C J White, B A York

Also present:

Executive Members:D A Ashley

MINUTES

The minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 18 January and 9 February 2005 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

PUBLIC PETITIONS

Mrs. Pat Cherry presented a petition containing 224 signatures urging the County Council to save the only bus service from Chipperfield to Kings Langley, Abbots Langley, North Watford. The petition was referred to Officers for consideration and report to the local member and Group Spokesmen.

PART 1 (OPEN BUSINESS)

1CATEGORY 1 (HIGHWAY REPAIRS) TOPIC GROUP

[Officer Contact:David Moses, Head of Scrutiny

Tel 01992 555300]

1.1The Committee received the final report and recommendations of the Category 1 (Highway Repairs) Topic Group which had been set up to consider the issues associated with the overspend on Category 1 faults.

1.2Conclusions

The Committee:

(a) / thanked Members of the Topic Group for their hard work and David Moses, Head of Scrutiny and Nicola Hayden and Emma Lund from Committee Services for providing officer support;
(b) / endorsed the following recommendations to the Director of Environment and the Chief Auditor:
  1. Internal Audit monitors the implementation of the Action Plan and report back to the Audit Panel in the event of any failure to implement the plan.
  1. There should be no change to the public promises in respect of faults reported by members of the public, nor to the commitment to the code of practice in respect of Cat. 1 faults identified during inspections.
  1. No action should be taken at present to bring the inspection regime back in-house but this option should be kept under review once the planned changes to a more risk management based approach have taken effect.
  1. The actions taken by Managers within HCC and Hertfordshire Highways in advance of the Group’s report to introduce an informal risk management approach and to commence work to amend the inspection manual should be welcomed.
  1. The move towards a more risk management approach should be endorsed.
  1. The proposed change in process for ordering Cat 1C works to place responsibility for this within the service management teams should be endorsed.
  1. Whilst the Group acknowledges that actions are being put in place to resolve the matters identified during the original scrutiny of the performance of Hertfordshire Highways at the meeting of the Environment Scrutiny Committee on 19 October 2004, it recommends that the Committee should review the trend in Cat. 1 repairs at its November 2005 meeting.
/ John Wood
Chris Kay
(c) / recognised that the Environment Department was already working to rectify the problems; / Rob Smith
(d) / welcomed the introduction of a flexible risk management approach and felt that the move of Cat. 1C works back to the
responsibility of the Service Management Team should bring demand under control; / Rob Smith
(e) / requested that the graph showing the number of Cat 1 Work Orders from Public and Safety Inspections (Appendix 2 in the Final Report) be circulated on a monthly basis to Members of the Committee; / Rob Smith
(f) / requested that the report be circulated to all Members of the County Council. / Nicola Hayden

2PERFORMANCE OF THE HIGHWAYS AGENCY TOPIC GROUP

[Officer Contact:Chris Allen-Smith, Principal Strategy Development Manager

Tel: 01707 356573]

2.1The Committee considered the final report and recommendations of the Performance of the Highways Agency Topic Group. They noted that the Topic Group had been set up to look into issues surrounding the performance of the Highways Agency – in particular Highways Agency standards and performance against those standards, prioritisation of Highways Agency woks and traffic noise from motorways.

2.2Conclusions

The Committee:

(a) / thanked Members of the Topic Group for their hard work and diplomatic approach to discussions with the Highways Agency and hoped that this had paved the way for a better relationship between the Highways Agency and the County Council; / All to note
(b) / thanked Officers for their support of the Group’s activities. / All to note
(c) / endorsed the following recommendations to the Director of Environment:
  1. That the Highways Agency be requested to supply annual Performance Indicator updates for each of the Highways Agency Areas that impact on Hertfordshire (Areas 5, 6 and 8) and for the Highways Agency as a whole, to set the Hertfordshire information in to context.
  1. That the Highways Agency be requested to provide regular updates on their major works programme within Hertfordshire.
  1. That regular co-ordination meetings continue to be held between officers of the Highways Agency and the County Council to co-ordinate major works and reduce the impact on the network where possible.
  1. That the Highways Agency be requested to provide further copies of their reports, business plans etc. as and when new versions are issued and that these reports be made available to HCC Members.
/ John Wood
(d) / requested that information received from the Highways Agency in response to Recommendation 2 be placed in the Members Bulletin; / Rob Smith
(e) / asked the Director of Environment to provide more information about the role of the new Highways Agency Traffic Officers; / John Wood
(f) / asked the Director of Environment to write to the Highways Agency seeking improvements in their litter collection performance. / John Wood
3REVIEW OF PERFORMANCE OF EDF ENERGY

[Officer Contact:Alan Armson, Strategic Client Manager, Hertfordshire Highways

Tel: 01707 356552]

3.1The Committee received the sixth report on the performance of EDF Energy in dealing with street lighting electricity supply faults and the provision of new connection. It also updated them on the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets’ (Ofgem) latest directions on a national Service Level Agreement trial to monitor performance of EDF Energy.

3.2Conclusions

The Committee:

(a) / welcomed the report and the continued improvement in EDF’s performance;
(b) / thanked Officers for providing information in clearer, graphical format;
(c) / welcomed the inclusion of an exception report in the monthly update from Hertfordshire Highways;
(d) / requested that the next Committee consider the performance of EDF Energy in a similar manner. / David Moses

4BUDGET MONITOR TO 31 DECEMBER 2004

[Officer Contact:Mike Collier, Assistant Director (Resources)

Tel: 01992 556010]

4.1The Committee received and noted the Budget Monitor to 31 December 2004.

4.2Conclusions

The Committee:

(a) / endorsed the Executive Member for Environment’s request to HM Treasury that any surplus income from safety cameras be made available for the County Council to use on additional road safety measures within Hertfordshire;
(b) / agreed that the Group Spokesmen should write to the Department for Transport (with the support of the LGA) requesting that any surplus income from the Safety Camera Partnership be made available for road safety schemes in Hertfordshire. / Chris White
Mary Bayes
Brian York
5COUNCIL PROMISES – ‘TRAFFIC LIGHT’ MONITOR FOR 2004-05

[Officer Contact:Geoff Brown and Peter Stanley

Tel: 01992 555370 and 01992 555306]

5.1The Committee noted a report giving the latest data for the promises monitor.

6 SCRUTINY UPDATE AND WORK PROGRAMME

[Officer Contact:Nicola Hayden, Committee Administrator

Tel: 01992 555560]

6.1The Committee noted the report setting out the progress on scrutiny items and outlining a work programme for future meetings of the Committee.

6.2Conclusion

The Committee:

agreed that the Group Spokesmen would consider whether the issue of litter on roads should be scrutinised. / Nicola Hayden to note
REPORT TO COUNCIL

Item 1 – Category 1 (Highway Repairs) Topic Group

Andrew Laycock

County Secretary

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