Meeting documents

Venue: Mezzanine Room 1, County Hall, Aylesbury. View directions

Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies for Absence

Minutes:

Apologies had been received from Alan Lambourne and Ross Osborn.

2.

Declarations of Interest

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest.

3.

Matters Arising pdf icon PDF 144 KB

Minutes:

It was noted on page 3 of the agenda pack that reference was made to highways in the Weedon and Padbury areas and that Mr Clark had provided Mr Thomas with a response to his enquiry from 20th July 2016 meeting about the regularity and extent of summer verge mowing provided by Transport for Bucks (TfB). For information, the response was as follows for rural grass cutting:

 

  • Cut 1 – Junctions and vision splays across all road categories carried out between April – May
  • Cut 2 – 1.2m swathe cut across all road categories.
  • Cut 3 - Junctions and vision splays across all road categories carried out between July – August
  • Cut 4 – Full Width cut on strategic routes = A & B with some C roads as per asset categorisation between August - December.

 

In addition to previous years TfB are also clearing vegetation from all central reservations and/or safety barriers on strategic routes as detailed above.

 

 

Rural Grass Work Type

 

 

Junctions

 

1.2M Swathe

 

Junctions

Full Width Cut A, B & C roads

 

Barriers

Timescale

 

April-May

 

May-July

 

July-August

 

August-September

 

 

 

It was noted grass is cut in ‘swathes of 1.2 metres’, but vegetation outside 1.2 metres grows very high and falls towards the carriageway. It was commented that cutting the 1.2 metres at an angle could prevent grass falling as it would be supported by grass of similar, but slightly shorter length. The Chairman recommended that Mr Clark report this information back to TfB for consideration.

 

Mr A Clark pointed out on page 4 that attendance at the site meeting on 3rd June 2016 in Frieth was Mr J Clark and Mr A Clark, not Mr A Lambourne. This will be corrected.

 

The minutes of the previous meeting were then agreed as a correct record.

4.

New Online Report System

Jack Douglass, Business Improvement Officer, Transport Economy & Environment

 

Minutes:

Mr Jack Douglass, Business Improvement Officer from the county council’s Transport Economy and Environment department was welcomed to the meeting by the Chairman. He provided the following information:

 

  • It was noted that the current reporting system for Rights of Way was quite complicated, unattractive and not especially useful on mobile phones.

 

·         The county council’s Head of Digital chose to redesign the reporting system for potholes and street lighting, which is the busiest area for online reporting.

 

·         The new system would be tested in December 2016 and would go live in January 2017, it would allow issues to be reported directly onto a map showing specific streets, located by postcode. This will be called Maintain My Street. Updates will be loaded onto the system for the public to view and updated as matters progress. The location of problems on the map will enable the public to view defects on their street already reported and this will prevent double reporting.

 

·         You can choose specific issues and view the status, such as progress on repairs. It will also be possible to upload photos and provide more information to a specific problem if the original report lacked detail.

 

·         This service is currently being tested to receive customer feedback.

 

It was noted that there was no target date for Rights of Way to be added to the new system, but would be considered if the new system was to be expanded. The Report It system will still be available for uploading issues on the Rights of Way network.

 

One problem with the existing Report It system was transferring web data to the Countryside Access Management System (CAMS). This is the system rights of way teams use to raise orders. Mr A Clark said the Report It system was registering the problem as resolved (or ‘Job Done’) when it has only been transferred from the web data to the CAMS GIS system. Mr Douglass said resolving this issue was not something he could resolve. Ms Taylor said this was to be addressed by TfB. Members were asked to check the system over the coming months to see if these problems were being eliminated and report back to us.

 

Ms Taylor explained that Exegesis had visited BCC last week to provide some updates on the latest CAMS system; and during that visit they provided a brief explanation of CAMS web. Volunteers can interact, log problems and track their reports. Parish councils can report issues and then take things back if appropriate, to resolve locally. It does seem to be an all singing, all dancing version of the Report It system specifically for rights of way.

 

Paul Harris, Oxfordshire County Council, was asked if they had adopted the Maintain My Street approach. He said yes, but rights of way were separate and had moved fully to CAMs Web. This system provides better public interaction and the web interface is much better than the old system. Mr Harris offered an open invitation to BCC or the LAF to come  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

5.

Right Of Way Group Report pdf icon PDF 246 KB

Helen Francis, Definitive Map Team; Jonathan Clark, Strategic Access Officer; and Joanne Taylor, Operations Team Leader

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Definitive Map

Mr Elfes said there seemed to be a fixed timescale of 2-3 years for doing Definitive Map Modification Orders (DMMOs) yet when a development affects a route, suddenly they can be done in six months. This suggests they could have been done in six months to start with and the process could be speeded up. 

 

It was advised that the 2-3 year timescale for the completion of investigations into DMMOs is due to investigative work being so time consuming and there was only 1 member of staff working on DMMOs at present, 4-days per week.

 

Mr Hurworth said that he believed Buckinghamshire were very good in getting their applications through in a relatively short time scale compared to many counties, some of whom have backlogs going back ten years or more. Mr Elfes concluded they were winners in a very slow race indeed!

 

It was raised that there was no timescale for determining Village Green applications. Mrs Hudson said these are very expensive due to inquiry costs, so only one is done annually. 

 

Strategic Access

Mr Clark explained that £15 million of the £40 million available for local projects from HS2 would be made available within the ‘central area’ when the HS2 Bill receives Royal Assent, probably in January 2017. This will be called the 'Community & Environment Fund and Business & Local Economy Fund'. The council are currently compiling a spreadsheet of suitable ideas and LAF Members could make Mr Clark aware prior to January 2017 of any ideas for projects that could utilise this money.

 

Mr Clark also advised that a £500,000 grant had been secured for cycling improvements around the Wendover area from HS2 Ltd. The Ridgeway Partnership were aware of these funding streams.

 

Groundwork and the county council have worked together and secured £3 million from HS2 for the Colne Valley. This includes the area of Buckinghamshire around the M25, including Iver, Denham and Grand Union Canal. Again, ideas for projects are welcome.

 

A member asked how these sums came about before projects has been identified. Mr Clark explained that counties had lobbied government through the Parliamentary Committee process to ask for mitigation to off-set having HS2 on the doorstep with none of the benefits that such a railway brings. The Wendover improvements are linked to the proposed National Cycleway and Grand Union Triangle. There may be money for path improvements, but not path maintenance.

 

Mr Thomas highlighted the money spent on up?grading of cycle ways/footpaths along the A413. There is now a good footpath in Weedon which will eventually deteriorate and only a small maintenance budget.

 

Cllr Whyte explained that the cycleway was a government grant, so if we didn't bid for it we wouldn't have had anything, so the debate about maintenance or no maintenance is very good, but it makes no different to getting the path or not. It will be a challenge in the next five or ten years’, but he wouldn't have wanted to stop the new path happening. It's  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

6.

LAF Members' Report pdf icon PDF 239 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Forum noted the information contained within the agenda pack and the following points were raised:

 

A letter was issued to the landowner regarding the open access land at Frieth, following members’ discussions in July 2016. This letter is in the agenda pack and concludes the matter from the Forum’s perspective. The Open Spaces Society thanked the Forum for their efforts to try and resolve the problems.

 

The Restoring the Record project co-ordinator reported 53% coverage of the county, with most volunteers coming forward via parish councils. The Chairman noted the big gaps north of Wycombe and Aylesbury. Mr Clark said the volunteer co-ordinator had been working hard recently and was doing an excellent job.

 

Cllr Whyte asked if the project will address the gaps that exist between footpaths and the verge on the road. Mr Clark explained this is exactly what the project was about: connecting missing links.

 

Mr Clark was to write to the Open Spaces Society about hosting and sharing information from the Restoring the Record (RTR) project on their website. However, Mr Thorns had drafted a possible LAF website, circulated to members a few weeks ago, that could host this information for project volunteers to access. Mr Thorns said he can’t maintain it, but could show people how quickly one can be created for free. The Chairman suggested perhaps Mr Clark could discuss with Jack Douglass, but Cllr Whyte said there was no budget to get teams involved and this has to be a volunteer effort. The Forum should use either a free website or Bucks Voice. Mrs Hudson reminded the Forum that the county council needed to remain completely impartial from the RTR Project and the Forum was an independent body. The Chairman asked Mr Harris if Oxfordshire LAF had an independent website. He said the county council host their LAF’s website. Wiltshire LAF did have an independent website until the volunteer with the skills left. It was concluded that without a volunteer the Forum will not have its own website.

 

Mr Clark outlined the correspondence from the British Horse Society (BHS) written to all LAFs in England regarding the Section 36 street list and how it's maintained. Mrs Hudson advised that any route shown on the List of Streets will be exempt from the cut-off date. It was the county’s approach not to remove any route on the List of Streets without a legal Order through the Magistrate’s Court. This is a public process subject to consultation. Mr Worrell, member of the public, asked about old lists and compared with new lists. Mrs Hudson said Transport for Bucks (TfB) administer the List of Streets, not the Rights of Way team, but a comparison could be made of old lists with new ones to ensure routes have not been lost. The Chairman asked for a briefing on how the list is maintained in Buckinghamshire for the next meeting. Mrs Hudson will respond to the BHS.

 

ACTION: Mrs Hudson

 

Mr Clark outlined the Chiltern and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

7.

Any Other Business

Minutes:

There was no further business to be discussed.

8.

Date of Next and Future Meetings

Mezzanine Room 1, County Hall, Aylesbury, 10am Wednesday 8th March 2017

 

Minutes:

The next meeting will take place on 8th March 2017.