Issue - meetings

That the supplementary estimate for additional revenue funding of £180,110 in 2019/20, in order to progress essential preparatory works in support of the Congestion Capital project, be approved.

The Executive considered a report relating to a proposed supplementary estimate for essential preparatory works to address traffic congestion within the Borough.

The Executive Member for Highways and Transport advised that the supplementary estimate was required to undertake work that would feed into the major programme to reduce traffic congestion next year; as set out in the Council’s Vision and the Capital Plan.  In addition funding had been included in the Medium Term Financial Plan to improve technology around congestion.   This included real time monitoring, improvement of traffic signs, reviewing traffic sensitive routes with a view to imposing more stringent requirements on any proposed streetworks applications, eg off peak only working, which should lead to less disruption.  In addition more intelligent signage and traffic signals would be introduced which should lead to a reduction in traffic queues. 

The Executive Member for Climate Emergency commented that as traffic congestion was seen to be one of the largest causes of carbon across our carbon footprint he wholeheartedly supported and endorsed the proposal. Given that a recent article had stated that 40% of CO₂ emissions were down to congestion, which was far more than moving people into alternative transport, Councillor Jorgensen believed that this was a major step towards carbon neutrality.

It was noted that Wokingham was a very high car owning area and the nature of the Borough made it difficult for people to use public transport.  Councillor Jorgensen advised that it was hoped to introduce monitoring software shortly which would measure the relative performance of a particular road compared to normal performance.  This would light up when something unusual was happening enabling the Traffic Management Team to react to traffic jams and actually start diverting people away from these areas.

In response to a query Councillor Jorgensen confirmed that the Council had little influence over roadworks undertaken by utility companies as, for example, if a gas main burst this had to be dealt with.  There was also a requirement that the Council had to allow utility companies to undertake such works.  The key was to try and avoid people getting stuck in the queue whilst the roadworks were being carried out and try, wherever possible, to influence when the work was carried out, eg out of hours, in order to try and avoid disruption for commuters.

RESOLVED:  That the supplementary estimate for additional revenue funding of £180,110 in 2019/20 in order to progress essential preparatory works in support of the Congestion Capital project be approved.