Cheshire East Council has outlined its planned works programme for roads and footpaths in 2022-23.
The authority identifies and prioritises what highways maintenance, repairs and improvements to do each year and allocates the available budget for work programmes in accordance with its asset management approach.
The programme of works includes surface dressing, patching, replacing street lighting columns, improving cycle and pedestrian routes, drainage, upgrading traffic signals, installation of a mini roundabout, bridge repairs etc in various locations in Alderley Edge, Handforth and Wilmslow
The programme is available on the council's website. It can be viewed in two different ways:
● A full works programme, listed by street name which can be easily searched using the simple instructions on the webpage; and
● A list of works by theme, including the asset-based scoring method used to prioritise inclusion on this year's work programme.
Each month the full works programme will be updated and re-issued to reflect progress to date or any changes to the delivery of the programme.
The council is responsible for 2,700 kilometres of highway and has a continuous programme of maintenance.
Cheshire East Council recently approved a new budget, which includes an additional £19m capital investment in planned highways maintenance over the next three years, funded by borrowing.
However, this investment by Cheshire East Council is set against the backdrop of a £3m cut in government funding for highways maintenance in 2020/21, and a freeze in government funding for the next three years at a time when inflation is at a 30-year high.
Highways' funding is split into two areas – revenue and capital. Revenue comes from council tax and is used for day-to-day maintenance work. Capital funding is provided by central government grants and the councils own investment and delivers improvements to the road network.
For the 2022-23 financial year, the highways revenue budget is £10.987m and the capital budget is £22.793 million. However, the level of funding needed to stop the borough's highways getting worse is estimated to be £28m a year for revenue activities and £27m for capital works.
View the full programmes and the scoring method for each in more detail online.
Comments
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A photograph of the area you are describing that shows the dubious quality of the repair work would make a powerful statement.
Sometimes words alone just do not do it on a forum like wilmslow.co.uk.
I have taken pictures of this repair and passed them onto the Head of Transport at Cheshire East.
All our finished repairs are photographed by the road teams, so it will be interesting to see how they left it. This should establish if these problems occurred afterwards from vehicle tyres lifting the tarmac before it hardened or if it was just shoddy workmanship.
Cheshire East is now hiring a Quality Assurance Manager to oversee our third party road repair work, so we hope the standard of finish and accountability will significantly improve. These "Level 1" repairs though are temporary fixes for small areas. They are cheap but can last only months, so are often a false economy.
This is why we are investing an additional £19m in road repairs over the next 3 years, which allows us to do more expensive but longer lasting "Level 2" repairs. This involves resurfacing larger patches of the road but not the complete road, which is classified as a "Level 3" repair.
In addition to these improvements, we have also been evaluating the new JCB PotHolePro road repair machine that has been in the national press recently. Our 6 month trial has been very successful and we are highly likely to acquire some of these machines for use around the borough. The extra efficiency they provide will also help us make faster, better, cheaper road repairs too.
Therefore, I hope all these initiatives will mean we start to see a significant and long overdue improvement in the quality of our local roads.
Mark
Cllr Mark Goldsmith
Residents of Wilmslow
Wilmslow West & Chorley
Its disappointing that the service you and I expect to be delivered as standard, and to a good standard, clearly isnt occuring.
I hope this is rectified at contractors expense and not tax payers/ road users.
Your intervention much appreciated.