The Senior Highway Maintenance Street Light Manager introduced the report of the Director of Neighbourhood Services which presented and recommended approval of the Council’s Highway Infrastructure Asset Management (HIAM) Performance Plan for 2023-27. The Plan brought together previous Performance Management Framework (PMF), Communications Strategy, Risk Management and Asset Data Information Plan. The Performance Plan provided clear details of how the Highway and Infrastructure would be managed, monitored, communicated and how risks would be assessed to deliver the outcomes outlined in the Policy and Strategy.

In response to Member queries about the performance measures set out in the report, particularly in relation to killed and seriously injured (KSI) and road traffic accident (RTA) injuries, the Senior Highway Maintenance Street Light Manager informed the committee that the targets and criteria in the plan were based on the Liverpool City Region criteria and that the Council must measure in the same way as other boroughs so that data could be compared. The Assistant Director: Highways and Infrastructure clarified that the council could introduce local targets in line with vision zero but must continue to capture the regional data.

Members commented on the monitoring of resurfacing work and whether the fact that vehicles were becoming larger and heavier had been factored into future plans. The Senior Highway Maintenance Street Light Manager confirmed that many roads were constructed with structural concrete as they were old tram roads, but officers were aware that flexible roads may suffer more deterioration and that there were maintenance programmes that were proactive in identifying such roads. Furthermore, all surface treatments were quality checked after 12 months to ensure that the required standards had been met.

The Senior Highway Maintenance Street Light Manager acknowledged that the surface treatments used were weather dependent and that this could cause disruption to residents if works could not go ahead as advertised. Members suggested that information could be shared with ward councillors to help advise residents.

Resolved – That

(1)   the Highway Infrastructure Asset Management Performance Plan 2023-27, as set out in Appendix 1 to this report be approved

(2)  the Director of Neighbourhood Services be authorised to make any non-substantive revisions or amendments to these documents as are necessary to align with the Council’s corporate objectives or with legislative changes.