To receive a verbal update from the Area Managers from Technical Services and Neighbourhood Services in attendance about any key recent, ongoing and/or future planned Local Services work for the attention of members of the Local Area Council, who will also then have the opportunity to raise issues with the Area Managers.?
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The Area Managers have principal responsibility for highway services and environmental services, such as refuse collection, street cleansing and grounds maintenance, within the geographic boundaries of the Local Area Council.?
Minutes:
Highways
Resurfacing
Three schemes had been completed of the 2022/23 LTP, those
were:
- Swansfield Park Road – Alnwick
- Trewhitt Hall
- Barmoor to Doddington
There would be a total of 41 resurfacing schemes to deliver in the
North Northumberland area, including eight additional schemes, two
micro surfacing schemes and 14 on the surface dressing
programme.
The schemes to complete next were:
Canongate Bridge – Alnwick
Knocklaw – Rothbury
Brewery Road – Wooler
Harwood Village
The
highways team had also been delivering a major car park scheme in
Amble
Maintenance
The maintenance teams had the use of two hot box loans, making it three in total.
There would shortly have two
gully tankers
The jet patcher was due to arrive the week after the meeting for
roughly eight weeks.
All of the gullies on the A697
from Weldon Bridge to Coldstream had recently been cleared, along
with all the gullies on the A698 from Cornhill to Berwick and all
of the gullies on the A1068 Druridge to
Alnwick. This process would continue on all of the major roads and
then move onto the secondary roads.
Members noted that Highways Inspectors were continuing to deal with
hundreds of complaints every week about potholes and noted that it
was a struggle to deal with these while trying to complete their
routine inspections
Following the update from G. Bucknall – Lead Highways Delivery Manager, members were invited to ask questions, in which the following information was provided:
· The list of C roads to be completed would be circulated to members after the meeting.
· The sign team had been suspended as there had been an issue with getting poles.
· The new gully wagon would be full time.
· The jet patcher blows out all the water, ready for the mix to be inputted for filling potholes.
Members thanked Graham and the team for their continued hard work.
Neighbourhood Services
Waste
Services
Residual and Recycling waste collection services were continuing to
perform well.
Demand for the bulky waste services were high but the service had
been performing well after making some adjustments to meet
demand,
Garden Waste service had also been performing well, with 440 new
customers in the North Northumberland area.
Grass
Cutting
Seasonal staff had been appointed and the team had started cutting
late March/early April.
Start of the grass cutting season saw a few interruptions from wet
weather and the Easter bank holiday which elongated the gap between
cut one and two, but the teams recovered well.
Weed Control
Area weed spraying was underway, including the spraying of
obstacles.
Verge Cutting
Work was predicted to start shorty and would take approximately two
months to complete.
There was 6.8 million sq. meters of verge to be cut in the county,
and the team planned to engage local farmers and contractors to
help reduce the significant workload.
The team planned to react quickly if any re-visits were necessary
for any visibility sightlines.
Holy Island Public Conveniences had opened since the previous North Northumberland Local Area Committee meeting in March 2022.
Following the update from B. Hodgson – Neighbourhood Services Area Manager, members were invited to ask questions, which then the following information was provided:
· There had been more staffing planned for the Jubilee Bank Holiday weekend to cover for public litter bins.
· Litter bins were the responsibility of the Town and Parish councils to clean, however the Neighbourhood Services Team would be willing to complete this upon request.
· The accessible toilets in Holy Island and Seahouses has been registered with changing place facilities.
· Neighbourhood Services team were legally allowed to spray active weeds only and were not allowed to blanket spray full paths, they have also trialled other weed control measures such as steam, vinegar, and acid.
Councillor Mather stated that he would like a report to go to Cabinet regarding the stoppage of spending for clean-up after storm Arwen. Councillor Mather also suggested that there should be communication to land owners explaining their responsibility with fallen trees, this was agreed by the rest of the committee for a report to cabinet and communications to land owners.
Members thanked Bob and the team for their continued hard work.
Members agreed to suspend standing orders at this point to allow the meeting to continue over 3 hours.