Minutes:
The Executive Member for Regeneration and the
Director of Regeneration and Culture submitted a report for the Executive’s
consideration. The purpose of the report was to seek approval to allocate funding
to develop and deliver transport and infrastructure improvements.
Middlesbrough Council received Local Transport
Plan (LTP) funding from the Department for Transport (DfT)
via Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA) to undertake maintenance and improvement
works on the Council’s transport network.
The projects within the proposed programme had
been identified from the Council’s ‘Future Year Scheme’ list - a compiled table
of all known requirements and suggestions received, which were ranked for their
suitability against a set criteria. That then formed the priority basis and was
dependent upon external funding criteria, statutory obligations and other
implications.
The maintenance schemes were based on asset
condition rating systems and allocation of resources work to address ‘worst
first’ was used. That was rationalised on the basis of public safety and asset
longevity priorities (such as ensuring that structures were safe), ensuring the
Council was addressing the areas of the network in most need of resolving.
The Council also received specific allocations
through competitive grant programmes and awards that were provided to deliver
prescribed pieces of work, which were dependent upon national/regional
criteria. Any awards for such projects by-passed the scoring criteria, although
that may be used to identify the most suitable candidates, and could be awarded
throughout the year. The proposals
within the submitted report included all known awarded allocations at time of
approval, but those could be subject to change.
The full funding allocations used to identify
the projects/programmes were detailed in Appendix 2 of the submitted report.
OPTIONS
The other
potential decisions that had not been recommended included:
1. Do nothing - that was not recommended as it would not have
allowed the Council to allocate funding and make the necessary arrangements in
advance of receipt of the allocations. The delivery of infrastructure
improvements required prudent planning, and co-ordination, so approvals in a
timely manner were pivotal to ensuring a successful delivery programme.
2. Re-assessing the project proposals - that was not
recommended, as they had been identified using a scoring matrix to ensure best
allocation of resources. Any changes would have deviated from the process, and
added delays to progressing.
ORDERED
That the
allocation of funding to develop and deliver infrastructure improvements, as
outlined within the report, be approved.
REASON
It
planned allow prudent allocation of funding to ensure that the Council was not
only working toward its ambitions and objectives, but was allocating resources
to ensure statutory requirements placed upon the Council as the Highway
Authority, ‘to ensure the safe and expeditious movement of people and goods on
its network’ were met.
The
allocations that were being proposed were based on ensuring a balance between
maintaining existing asset, and making improvements to the accessibility of the
current network/alternate modes of transport enhancements. That balance was
crucial in order to ensure the safety of the infrastructure, and to assist in
encouraging sustainability of the network.
Supporting documents: