Gloucestershire County Council’s Environment Scrutiny Committee will be discussing the Highways Inspection policy this week.
The cross-party committee meets regularly to scrutinise decision making and hold the council to account for its actions on behalf of the public.
On Friday March 19th, the committee will gather to hear an update on how road repairs have progressed since the Highways Inspection Policy was suspended following the extreme winter weather.
Cllr Chas Fellows, chairman of the environment scrutiny committee said: “As a scrutiny committee we will be looking very carefully at this issue and asking questions about what has been done. People want to know how the work is progressing and what the council is doing to ensure that these repairs are carried out as quickly as possible. We know that the state of the roads is a top priority for council tax payers and this committee is here to give them a voice. We are a cross-party committee so I am sure it will be an interesting debate that will focus on the real issues and not the politics.”
The Highways Inspection Policy sets out how the council should react to reports of potholes or other defects on the roads. Under the policy, reported defects are inspected and put into a 28-day rolling programme of repairs. But it was suspended at the end of January so the crews could be diverted to fixing the emergency repairs caused during the bad weather as soon as possible.
The suspension was lifted initially until the end of April and the environment scrutiny committee will receive a report which says the policy should be reinstated as planned.
However, the report also explains that the backlog of damage will take a further four to six months to repair.
When the council launched Operation Road Rescue on January 25th a timeframe of six months to repair the backlog was originally estimated so work is progressing as planned. Under Operation Road Rescue, the council has 70 gangs currently repairing around 500 potholes every day and since the campaign was launched more than 18,400 have been filled.
The Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee will meet at 10am on Friday March 19th in the Cabinet Suite at Shire Hall. It is a public meeting so you are welcome to attend.
Issued by Gloucestershire County Council’s media team.
Lisa Bonnell
Media & PR Officer
Gloucestershire County Council
Tel: 01452 425226 / 07805 540422
www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/pressoffice