Agenda item

Consideration was given to the Report upon the Winter Service Provision in order to provide a comprehensive review of the Winter Service to Members of the Committee. Mr Phil Jones, Corporate Manager, Highway Services provided the following information by power point presentation:-

 

•         The Legal Position

o        Statutory duty of highway authorities to maintain the highway by the insertion, after Section 41(1) of the Highways Act (1980).

o        It is not reasonable either to:

           Provide the service on all parts of the Network;

           Nor

Ensure running surfaces are kept free of ice or snow at all    times, even on the treated parts of the network, as far as is reasonable.

 

•         Returning to what may be considered ‘reasonable’. When comparing the percentage of the county road network which was pretreated in advance of forecasted ice and/or snow by our neighbouring authority areas, Ceredigion was circa 20% whilst Pembrokeshire was 19%; Powys was 19%; and Carmarthenshire was 22%.

 

•         Review 2024-25

The proposed update in advance of the 2024-25 Winter Season would need to align with the approved new Code of Practice for Highway Safety Inspection and Defect Rectification Policy, which advocates a data led risk based prioritisation approach.

 

•         Assessment Scoring 2024-25

All routes had been reassessed using the new Assessment Matrix, resulting in the reassessment of the scores attributed to each individual route or, if appropriate in some circumstances, parts of routes

 

•         Budget / Pre-treated Route Length

In 2018 the threshold for the pre-treatment was set at +2, equating to pre-treatment network length of 463.1km and it was noted in the report at that time that this would require an increase in the Winter Service budget provision of £18k for salt procurement based on an average winter season.

 

Following the reassessment / review in 2024 the closest network length to 463.1km coincides with a score of +1 at 458.1km.

2018 routes achieving the revised threshold score following the 2024 assessment review and will now be pre-treated are:

 

Rhodfar Felin, Cardigan, (+2) (0.87km)

 

2018 routes not achieving the revised threshold score following the 2024 review and would not be pre-treated were:

 

B4570 Manarafon to Cwm Cou, (-1) (13.7km)

          C1001C Jct. C1007 Comins Coch - Capel Dewi, (-7) (1.9km)

         

•         Cost Savings / Budget Pressures

The budget for providing the winter service in 2023-24 was £232,000.

On 29/02/24, Ceredigion County Council set its budget for

2024-25. These proposals included the budget reduction of £25k in relation to the Winter Service provision. For 2024-25 the budget for the Winter Service provision had been reduced to £207,000, a reduction of 11%.

The 2024-25 review had identified additional cost pressures in the delivery of the service, and these include increases due to,

I.        Plant

II.       Diesel +31%

III.      Labour +13%

IV.      Materials (salt) +29%

 

•         Cost Saving Proposals

In order to mitigate, as far as reasonably possible, those cost

pressures imposed by budget cuts and inflationary pressures on plant,

labour, diesel and materials, the Service was proposing the following

measures be approved:

 

o        Review winter service forecasting domains.

o        Removal of Route 5 North, which is amalgamated in to Route 2 North.

o        Reduce threshold for undertaking pre-treatment of the precautionary routes from a high confidence forecast provided of +1°C to +0.5°C.

 

•         Removal of Route 5 North

This route was pre-treated using a small vehicle. The review had determined that the neighbouring Route 2 North full size gritter had the capacity to undertake the pre-treatment of both routes.

 

The C1001 (Primrose Hill Junction with A44 at Llanbadarn Fawr to Capel Dewi Junction with A4159 connecting to the C1004 Waun Fawr and the C1007 Comins Coch) had been assessed as two routes. C1001A (A44 to junction with C1007 and C1001C junction with C1007 and junction with A4159).

 

No recommendation approval was required. It was an operational decision made in accordance with the Winter Service Policy for the removal of the C1001C from the pre-treated precautionary route network due to its assessment scoring of -7 which falls below the threshold score of +1 which was dictated by the overall length of the pre-treatment network length that could be pre-treated with the available budget.

 

•         Reduce threshold for undertaking pre-treatment of the precautionary routes from+1°C to +0.5°C.

 

Ceredigion, and many other Authorities use a forecast temperature of +1°C and below to determine whether to pre-treat the precautionary treatment network. On many occasions the forecast received from the forecaster is termed as being ‘marginal’. This was when temperatures are forecast to be between 0°C and +1°C.

No recommendation/approval was required, this was an operational decision, being, that for a marginal forecast between +0.5°C and +1°C with High confidence only, that no action was taken to pre-treat the precautionary route network.

 

Following questions from the floor and clarification on roads not gritted within certain wards by their respective Member, it was AGREED to recommend to Cabinet to approve the new Assessment Matrix which had been revised in order to align with the approved new Code of Practice for Highway Safety Inspection and Defect Rectification Policy which provided the Council with an enhanced and robust level of compliance with regards its duty under Section 41(1) of the Highways Act (1980).

 

New threshold score to determine length of pretreated network set at +1 following review.