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LEICESTERSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL HIGHWAY FORUM FOR HARBOROUGH TUESDAY, 25 OCTOBER 2016 AT 4.30 PM TO BE HELD AT COUNCIL CHAMBER, HARBOROUGH DISTRICT COUNCIL OFFICES AGENDA Item Pages 1. Chairman's welcome 2. Apologies for absence 3. Any other items which the Chairman has decided to take as urgent elsewhere on the agenda 4. Declarations of interest in respect of items on the agenda 5. Minutes of the last meeting (Pages 5 - 12) 6. Chairman's update - Local Lead Flooding Authority and (Pages 13 - 18) responsibility of Highways/Severn Trent 7. Presentation of petitions under Standing Order 36 A petition with 58 signatures from Mrs P M Passingham will be presented. The petition requests that the Knoll Street route be reinstated on the number 33 bus route in Market Harborough. “We, the undersign respectfully request the restoration of the #33 town service bus to the Knoll Street, Gardiner Street and Highcross Street routes (full wording attached to the agenda)” Previously the #33 bus used to cross Logan Street, onto Knoll Street and then turn left onto Gardiner Street, left again into Highcross Street and then down Wartnaby Street to the junction with Coventry Road. Officer to Contact: Sue Dann, Democratic Support ◦ Department of Environment and Transport ◦ Leicestershire County Council ◦ County Hall Glenfield ◦ Leicestershire ◦ LE3 8RJ ◦ Tel: 0116 305 7122 ◦ Email: [email protected] www.twitter.com/leicsdemocracy www.facebook.com/leicsdemocracy www.leics.gov.uk/local_democracy A few weeks ago the route was changed unexpectedly so that the bus now turns left down Logan Street, right into Highcross Street, left into Wartnaby Street and down to the junction with Coventry Road. Missing out Knoll Street completely. This has caused much inconvenience and concern to those residents of Knoll Street, Gardiner Street and Highcross Street who use the service regularly. Also, it is not now possible to pick up the bus on the crossroads of Logan Street and Knoll Street. Instead we have to walk some distance, crossing Norbury Close, to reach the new pick-up point on Northleigh Grove near Horsefair Close. For the young and able- bodied this is a short walk but for many of us who use the bus regularly this is far from ideal. Speaking with drivers of this bus (many of whom I have gotten to know well over the last few years) they tell me that very few people – only one! – boards the service on the new route and then only infrequently. It would appear that the change in route suits far fewer people than the one it has replaced. The top of Logan Street is rather narrow and suffers from parking on both sides of the street due to the fact that no properties have garages or drives, unlike Knoll Street. Consequently, the Logan Street is often severely restricted by double parked cars and it was for this reason that the bus began to avoid Logan Street, taking the Knoll Street route instead. On more than one occasion the bus was unable to get through narrow gaps and had to reverse back up Logan Street and then go along Knoll Street. It seems ridiculous that the Logan Street route has been reinstated when it has caused so many problems to the drivers in the past. Nothing has changed on Logan Street to make it any easier for the bus to get through so I would imagine that there will continue to be problems. Interestingly, I have noted that the #33 does occasionally still come down Knoll Street, presumably because it cannot get down Logan Street! However, this cannot be relied upon and the people of Knoll Street would prefer some certainty in knowing that the bus will be definitely be coming down the street. Over the last few years the bus has been the only convenient route into the town centre for many elderly residents, myself included. The bus is regularly boarded by OAPs, mothers with small children and probably, most importantly, it is regularly used by a blind lady who also regularly boards on Knoll Street. The new pick-up point must be particularly hazardous and inconvenient for her. Attached is a petition of interested parties who are anxious that the Knoll Street route be reinstated as soon as possible. I have made certain that only people with a genuine interest in the service reverting back along Knoll Street have signed the petition. We hope that you can investigate this issue on our behalf as surely the whole idea of having a town bus service is to service the needs of as many local residents as possible, not to take the quickest route available and miss out many of the people who have come to reply on this service. We would dearly love to see our bus back along Knoll Street again and hope that sense will prevail sooner rather than later. 8. Response to petition: Request to change the bus routes (Pages 19 - 26) going through the Kibworth Meadows Estate 9. Management of Highway Drainage (Pages 27 - 30) 10. National Highways & Transport (NHT) Public and Public (Pages 31 - 54) Representative Surveys; 2015 Results and 2016 Participation 11. 2016/17 maintenance and improvements programmes - (Pages 55 - 68) information item 12. Programme of traffic regulation orders and signing and (Pages 69 - 72) lining schemes - current position - information item 13. On-going action statement - nothing to report 14. Items for future consideration will Members please submit these in writing to the officers prior to the meeting 15. Any other items the Chairman has decided is urgent 16. Date of the next meeting - Tuesday 28th February 2017 4.30pm at Harborough District Council offices. 17. Chairman's closing remarks This page is intentionally left blank 5 Agenda Item 5 MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE LEICESTERSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL HIGHWAYS FORUM FOR HARBOROUGH HELD IN THE COUNCIL CHAMBER AT HARBOROUGH DISTRICT COUNCIL ON TUESDAY 26TH JULY 2016 AT 4.30PM PRESENT County Councillors District Councillors Cllr G A Hart (Chairman) Cllr J Ackerley Cllr R K A Feltham Cllr S Bilbie Cllr S J Galton Cllr C Holyoak Cllr R Page Cllr M Rickman Cllr B L Pain Cllr A Nunn Cllr A Burrell The following also attended the meeting: County officers present: P Crossland and S Dann District officers present: N Proudfoot and D Atkinson 169. CHAIRMAN’S WELCOME The Chairman welcomed Members and officers to the meeting. He explained that he was the temporary Chairman whilst Cllr W Liquorish CC completed his term as the current Chairman of the Leicestershire County Council. He introduced Mr Atkinson, Head of Planning. He also welcomed Ann Sleath and Ian Hill from Houghton on the Hill Parish Council and also Mrs Allen – Lead Petitioner. 170. APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE Apologies for absence were received from County Councillors Liquorish and Hill and District Councillor Hall. 171. URGENT ITEMS There were no urgent items. 172. DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST There were no declarations of interest. 173. MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING Minutes of the previous meeting held on Tuesday 23rd February 2016 were confirmed and signed as a true record of the meeting. The Chairman advised that he would take item 7 before item 6 (Chairman’s updates). 6 174. PRESENTATION OF PETITIONS UNDER STANDING ORDER 36 A petition with 279 signatures from Mrs S Allen will be presented by Cllr R K A Feltham CC. The petition requests the County Council to change the bus route through Kibworth Meadows Estate. The Chairman asked Cllr R K A Feltham CC to present the petition. Cllr Feltham gave some background to the issues and advised that when the Kibworth Meadows Estate was being developed it was assumed there would be a bus route and that the single decker buses caused no problems at that time. It was only when the Arriva X3 double decker buses started to be used that the problems occurred. He went on to say that some of the new residents had received information about the new buses but existing residents had received no information. Cllr Feltham stated that 279 signatures highlight the strength of feeling about this issue. The bus route goes past a children’s play area and he felt that a risk assessment was probably necessary. A meeting was held with residents and the Managing Director of Arriva where the issues were discussed. Mrs Allen (Lead Petitioner) added that if she had known about the bus route she would have not chosen to live there. She stated that she has to keep her bedroom curtains closed due to the double decker buses driving past her house every 2 hours. The Chairman advised that this issue will be investigated and a response will be brought back to the next meeting. 175. CHAIRMAN’S UPDATES a) T5 Street Lighting Transformation Project 2016/17 The Forum considered an update by the Director of Environment and Transport regarding the Street Lighting Transformation Project. This update detailed the programme of updating the County Council’s traditional street lighting stock of 68,000 lanterns to LED across the County over the next three years. The report was presented by Mr Crossland with a copy filed with the minutes. Mr Crossland explained that the upgrade started in March 2016 and the table in paragraph 4 details the programme up to March 2017. He also added that initially the lights will burn all night at 100% brightness but will pick up the dimming programme within a couple of days. Cllr S Galton CC asked for the timescale when the street lights in Harborough will be upgraded. Mr Crossland confirmed that Members will be informed when the full programme is available.

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