Street lights will not necessarily be repaired

Unlit street lights have overtaken potholes as the major complaint to the Council.

Surrey Highways are currently not repairing street lights except in the most urgent cases.  

According to Surrey County Council, this is because a new PFI street lighting contract is expected to start early next year, which will involve replacing 80% of the existing lamp columns, so they are not spending money on repairing columns that will be replaced.  

Damaged or street lighting columns, regulatory signs and bollards are still being dealt with, though sometimes just by disconnecting the power and chopping off the damaged part.  Routine replacement of bulbs is also still continuing.  Other works such as lantern replacements and straightening street lights that are leaning are being treated as low priority and not carried out - except on busy roads where there is a risk of road traffic collisions or in locations identified by the Police as "high crime areas".   

The new lights are expected to be more effective and cheaper to run.   They are also supposed to reduce "light pollution" and it should be possible to dim them late at night.   Above all they should register automatically in the control room when they need repair.  Installation is intended to be spread over a period of 5 years with the backlog of street lights needing repair being dealt with first,  so provided there is no hold-up in signing the new contract, we should see improvements before the autumn of 2010.    

However, in the meantime, we will see various lights going out over the borough during the winter period which will simply not be repaired.     

Hylands Road, Epsom

Lamp post no 4 is on during the day.  This problem has been reported to the Council.  Report reference no W69704.  

Chalk Lane 'at any time waiting restrictions'

On 14th September, at the Surrey County Council Local Committee (Epsom & Ewell), a report was presented on the objections received following the advertising of the Traffic Regulation Order for introducing at any time waiting restrictions in Chalk Lane, Epsom. 

Parking restrictions are required in order to carry out  footway improvement and protection works in Chalk Lane, which will prevent vehicles striking properties between Heather Lodge and No 14.  

Of the 62 objections received, 57 were from employees of Epsom General Hospital, who park in local streets whilst at work.   The remaining objections came from people living in the immediate area.  

Whilst the committee noted the objections, the upheld the Traffic Regulation Order and resolved to allow the proposed restrictions to be implemented and the associated works to be carried out.   

According to the report, the works will be implemented during the October half term school holidays (2009).  

Surrey County Council's lead officer is Steve Williamson and you can contact him on 08456 009 009, if you want to know anything further about the scheme or its implications.

Vehicle Activated Signs

I asked a question at the last Surrey County Council Local Committee (Epsom & Ewell) in September, regarding a vehicle activated sign (VAS) in Ashley Road.  But before I could get my question in, the Chair of the committee, Cllr Colin Taylor, put forward a resolution on the issue, which fortunately the committee agreed, which addressed the key point of my question. 

Vehicle activated signs are the speed signs you get that tell you either at what speed you are driving, or prompt you to stick to the speed limit, by flashing on as you drive towards them.  We have had some put in Epsom and indeed, Cllr Frost has allocated another £2500 of his 'Members Allocation' money towards a VAS for Longdown Lane South, showing 'Bend' in an effort to slow down traffic approaching the bend and thus improve road safety.  All good stuff - except ... there is a catch! 

The sign in Ashley Road has not worked for some time.  Indeed there are signs all over Epsom that are not working.  It was reported at the committee meeting that they are outside the contract arrangements that put them in and outside any sort of warranty period to have them replaced.  So effectively, we have signs which don't work, which we cannot repair and which have no budget for long term maintenance. 

According to Surrey County Council Officers, they were introduced the equipment as a trial and the trial has shown that they only seem to last about two years and that a maintenance arrangement needs to be in place to keep them working.  Clearly they could not know the lifespan issue at the start (if indeed that is what it is - the manufacturers may have a different opinion as to why the equipment seems to break down - but as this was not reported at committee, we only have one side of the story), but the fact that no provision seems to have been made for maintenance, I find a little puzzling.  It would seem to me to be natural to consider the long term maintenance of equipment in any plan to install something new.  But the way the issue was presented to the committee, it would appear Surrey County Council really did decide it was worth the cost of buying equipment just to see what happens.  

Officers are now trying to include these signs in contract negotiations for street lights, so at present there is no solution to the broken signs, but they are hoping to have one at some point.  

The committee sent a fairly strong message of disapproval back to Surrey County Council's elected Executive Members (all Conservatives, as they run the Council), so lets hope that something can be done to get these signs working again and ensure that there is a sustainable plan for their maintenance, otherwise, it will be a complete waste of time and money for the Longdown Lane South sign to be installed because without a plan to repair the equipment if it breaks down, it will be little more than scrap metal cluttering up our highway, once it ceases to alert people to the highway danger. 

Quality of repairs needs higher priority

I used the public questions session at the Surrey County Council Local Committee (Epsom and Ewell), to ask another question about the highways.  

My question was: 

"Has a scrutiny review of the Highway's Contractor been scheduled and if so when.  If a review has not yet been scheduled, would this committee formally request that the County Council undertake such a review, with specific reference to the cost of works compared with other authorities and how the County Council monitors the quality of works undertaken."

My question was partially answered in that the Committee sent a resolution to the County's Executive, triggered by a report on budget overspend on highways schemes, but I still believe that a wholesale review of the contract is needed.  

We are seeing an improvement in the speed with which repairs are undertaken, but I remain concerned about the quality of repairs, and it is an area that I will continue to campaign on, as well as a review of the criteria used to judge whether a repair is needed.  We have some roads in a hell of a state which, I am told by the Council, are not bad enough to warrant a repair.  

Monitoring Re-repairs

Despite a Freedom of Information request yielding a negative response to the question "does the County Council keep track of potholes that get re-repaired", an Officer at the recent Surrey County Council Local Committee (Epsom & Ewell), told me that there is some sort of monitoring. The answer I received came as a result of me asking, for the third time, whether the computer system would be changed in order to monitor such information.   So, I shall have another go at asking the question and see what I get back - of course I'll post the results on the blog.  

Puffin Crossing - Station Approach, Epsom

During the election campaign, I was asked about the crossings at the station and what was happening.  

I attended the Local Committee (Epsom & Ewell) on 13th July,  at which a report was presented calling  for approval of the statutory advertising of the puffin crossing currently under construction at Station Approach.  

As part of the Fairview Homes Development (Emperor House) in Station Approach the section 279 works included the provision of a puffin crossing outside Epsom Station to replace the staggered pelican crossing that was there previously. 

The report confirmed that the puffin crossing construction is nearing completion and now statutory consultation with the emergency services is required before the crossing can be commissioned in order that the zigzag markings can be legally enforced.   The markings are needed to prevent parking in the proximity of the crossing and is important at this location where vehicles will drop off and pick up passengers. 

Even though there is a statutory requirement for the crossing to be advertised, members of the public have no right of objection.   The cost of the advertisement will be met by contribution from the developer.

If anyone wants to find out more about this, the Lead Officer at Surrey County Council is Steve Williamson, tel: 08456 009 009 or you can email him at eastsurreyhighways@surreycc.gov.uk.

Progress at last.