Here is an update of some of my county councillor activities for Haslemere for the past few weeks. Update also includes some SCC announcements.

HIGHWAYS UPDATE

• Tanners Lane, met with St Bart’s parents, carers and children to discuss concerns about road safety when crossing near Chestnut Ave car park. Arranged SCC highways team site visit, and agreed to take forward a request for a pedestrian crossing and alterations to Lower Street, Tanners Lane junction to reduce turning traffic speeds.
• Wey Hill, Tesco lights met with SCC highways to discuss safety following tragic fatality. Further meetings with safety audit team to look at lights and crossing planned. Agreed yellow hatching at Lion Lane/Wey Hill required.
• Vicarage Lane re-surfacing complete.
• Damaged railings under Fosters Bridge to be replaced with the work beginning this week.
• Footpath (604) Map Notice of Modification Order. This Order, made on 4 November 2015, if confirmed, as made, will modify the Definitive Map and Statement for the area by adding a footpath from Lower Street/ Petworth Road beside Lloyds Bank, Haslemere (Grid ref SU 904328) in a south-westerly direction for 52 metres to College Hill (grid ref SU 904327).
• Old Haslemere Road/Park Road posts to be installed to prevent verge damage
• WBC/SCC partnership work to resolve bank slippage, drainage and highway damage on Sunbrow Ave has been started.
• Lower Street: Concerned residents’ request for safer crossing from bus stop to station will be addressed in the station forecourt re-design (see below). A request for a zebra crossing here has been declined as there is no funding available
• High Street de-clutter completed, posts all painted black, West Street- several obstructive posts with ‘no loading’ signs removed, signs attached to property frontage or existing posts to reduce West Street street clutter.
• High Street, referred concern to highways team re poor utilities surface with black tar over cobbled surface. Thames Water have been asked by SCC to replace the cobbles.
• Sandrock, agreed installation of lighting columns- to be installed before year end.
• West Street, negotiating with SCC to replace existing lights with conservation lighting columns.
• Weysprings, drainage issues resolved by installation of French drains
• ‘Gateway’ scheme, Shepherds Hill/Courts Hill Road/Hill Road junction complete- requested traffic speed data to assess impact of traffic calming scheme. Further measures to be pressed for if speed reduction not significant.
• ‘Pocket park’ at Shepherds Hill/Lower Street junction, plans for ramp access to create accessible green space unfortunately to be dropped as health and safety regs would require railings around the top of the existing small wall so not feasible.
• Haslemere train station forecourt, meetings with SWT and SCC to discuss improvements, with specific focus on improving pedestrian access to bus stop on north side of station next to The Sewing Room.
• Waverley Parking Review 2015 now out for consultation. See which roads are covered and have your say.

NOTE: The council now has a new online reporting system for any rights of way problems, which SCC is encouraging everybody to use.  This way both the reporter and the receiver can keep track of the issue(s) they have logged.  I have attached a link to it for you if you would like to use it in the future. https://rightsofway.surreycc.gov.uk/

COMMUNITY VISITS

• Shottermill Junior School visit with head to see the work of the school.
• St Bartholomew’s Primary School, talked to year 6 about democracy and the political system.
• Attended the town’s memorial service and laid a wreath on behalf of SCC.

HASLEMERE STATION TRAVEL PLAN: PARTNERSHIP SCC, SWT and HASLEMERE VISION

Tender process under way for station travel plan.  The aim: to research how and why people travel to station using different transport modes. The goal: to improve station access and identify practical ways to increase pedestrian, cycle and public transport use.

SCC MEETINGS

• September LAC meeting: The draft minutes for the September 2015 Waverley Local Committee have now been published. The next Waverley Local Committee will be 11th December 2015 at 1.30pm at Godalming Baptist Church.
• Full Council, October 13 2015– here is the webcast. I spoke (2 hours 17 minutes in)requesting SCC to take more action to make Surrey’s roads safer for pedestrians, citing the call by parents and children of St Bart’s school, Haslemere for road safety improvements.
• Economic Prosperity, Environment and Highways Board – 21 October 2015. Agenda here. Please note Item 4 where I submitted a member’s question below: 

Submission by: Cllr Nikki Barton 

• At a recent meeting of the Waverley Local Committee it was reported that there are some highway improvement schemes that have been sitting in pricing with Kier since June 2015, some of which have been carried over from last year. It was reported that this was widespread across the county. I would like to ask the board for some more information regarding this issue. In particular I would like to understand what is causing this log jam within Kier, and the steps that are being taken to resolve these issues. I understand that Kier’s pricing schedules are highly complex and that the costing is high relative to other counties. I would like to request a full explanation of Kier’s pricing rates for highways schemes, and how these compare/benchmark with other county councils. Furthermore I understand that Kier, unable to deliver the schemes with their own workforce is subcontracting work out, with significant cost implications for the county. I would also like to request a full breakdown of both how much work Kier is contracting out annually (in terms of manpower and costs) and the marginal increase in costs added to any highways scheme as a result of this subcontracting.

 Response: 

• In response to this question, attached is a report detailing performance and progress of this years ITS programme. This provides an overview of works to date of the £4m 15/16 ITS programme, and confirms good progress with over 54% of schemes already constructed. However, it also identifies areas for improvement including how schemes are commissioned and delivered and improving efficiency within the Transport Infrastructure team.
• The report also provides details of Kier’s resources and pricing. In summary all of the ITS programme is delivered via a range of ten specialist sub-contractors and there are currently no issues with resource availability. Sub-contracting is the normal practice for ITS works, as it requires a degree of specialism and the resource requirement varies from month to month.  To ensure value for money, the majority of schemes are priced using a fixed “Price List” The price list was tendered on the open market and Kier proved to be best value when compared to their national competitors. The fixed “price list” must be used by all of Kier’s specialist supply chain and can only be adjusted each year by inflation, with no additional cost permitted. We are currently undertaking a detailed value for money exercise of the Kier contract, which will be reported to the December EPEH Board, however, if you have any concerns about scheme costs please share with the Area Highway Manager and we will include this cost data with our own value for money exercises. 
• We recognise that the delivery of ITS schemes remains an area of concern with members, and would be keen to work with the Local Committee Chairs to see how these can be delivered more effectively in the future.

Haslemere and Western Villages Task Group, November 13^th, Highways budget forecast and discussion of prioritisation of ITS (Integrated Transport Schemes) for next financial year. Speed reduction and road safety improvements will be our priorities for Haslemere going forward although significant highways budget cuts are expected 2016/17 that will have a negative impact.

SWT stakeholder conference: Basingstoke campus, October 13, 2015 

Discussions on challenges facing the network, ridership increasing, train overcrowding, old track infrastructure is a significant limiting factor.  The points outside Woking present a pinch point in the system, limiting the number of trains per hour that can run to Haslemere, a future multimillion £ investment will be needed to overcome this issue. South west trains franchise is up for renewal 2017.

SOME SCC NEWS UPDATES

Plastics Recycling Campaign                                                    

A county-wide campaign launched on Monday (2 November) to encourage Surrey residents to recycle more plastic bottles, pots, tubs and trays. Everyone in Surrey can recycle plastics from each room in the house. That  includes yoghurt pots, margarine tubs, fruit or vegetable trays and every type of plastic bottle. Once recycled they could be reborn as new items like furniture, children’s toys, a football shirt or even another bottle.

Recycling of plastics is important for the Surrey Waste Partnership as only 27% of household plastics are currently recycled in the county.

If every adult in Surrey recycled one more plastic bottle a week it would taxpayers more than £218,000 a year. To find out more, visit the Recycle Surrey

NHS Health Checks Campaign Continues

Over 17,000 people in Surrey have now had their free NHS Health Check so we’re  looking to build on that success with further communications activity throughout November. Residents aged 40-74 with no history of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke or kidney disease will be reminded that they are eligible for a free NHS Health Check.

Check at a nearby GP surgery or pharmacy. As people get older, their risk of developing these problems increases, but an NHS Health Check will pick up early signs. This allows them to take action to improve their health.

Please encourage residents in your area to visit the Healthy Surrey website to find out how to book an NHS Health Check.

Surrey Alliance Homeless News: Surrey Alliance Oct 15 news

Latest News from Stagecoach: see link here

Crossrail: Crossrail public consultation

Letters from Police and Crime Commissioner’s office 

• Respect and Remember: 2015-11-11_Respect and Remember_Councillors
• Policing in your neighbourhood: 2015-11-05_Policing In Your Neighbourhood_Councillors