Thank you for presenting your petition to Cambridgeshire County Council’s Highways and Transport Committee on 4 December 2024 to raise your concerns about maintenance within the parish of Coton, South Cambridgeshire. The petition can be viewed here ePetitions> Petition requesting repairs to Coton's roads.

Cambridgeshire County Council, like all local highway authorities, follows an asset management led approach for the maintenance of its public highway. As part of this approach, intervention is undertaken on a risk-assessment-based approach, which then impacts on the repair decision (i.e., not all pothole repairs are equal). A ‘standard’ repair involves:

·       The cutting out of a rectangular area.

·       Removing water and debris.

·       Apply tack coat to vertical edges and bottom of the defect.

·       Place appropriate asphalt into repair and overfill by 20-25% to allow for compaction.

·       Compact with compactor plate or small vibratory roller.

·       Overband the pothole repair

The longevity of the repair is typically linked to workmanship and quality of the surrounding surface. The Council is going through a process of randomly auditing the repairs undertaken by its contractor to ensure they meet the required standard. Where they do not, the contractor will be instructed to redo at their cost.

If the surrounding carriageway requires intervention at a greater scale, a temporary repair can also be installed as an interim measure to make it safe (marked with a yellow dot).

The Council also applies repairs using a Dragon Patcher, whereby compressed air cleans the defect before it is heated and hot bitumen applied – this method of repair is cheaper, quicker but typically has a lower longevity, so it is used primarily for preventative works (i.e., minor defects not yet at intervention level).

In addition to this, the Council has a published list of structural and non-structural repairs where the necessary intervention is beyond the remit of a standard pothole repair. The capital programme can be found here https://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/residents/travel-roads-and-parking/highway-projects/capital-maintenance-programme/pavement-improvements

A similar programme is anticipated for the 25/26 budget year, and the Asset Strategy Team is currently going through a countywide process for the identification and prioritisation of specific projects for next year and beyond. You can find out more about this here, under Item 6 Council and committee meetings - Cambridgeshire County Council > Meetings Calendar.

Specific to Coton, I can confirm that the following reactive maintenance work has been identified for delivery in the parish since August 2024:

·       St Peters way 45 X Cat 1 B potholes ordered 16/08/24 completed 29/08/24.

·       Brookfield’s Road 3 X Cat 1 B potholes ordered 16/08/24 completed 29/08/24.

·       St Johns Road 10 X Cat 1 B potholes ordered 16/08/24 completed 22/08/24.

·       Grantchester Road 25 X Cat 1 B potholes ordered 04/09/24 completed 03/12/24.

·       The Footpath 93 X Cat 1 B potholes ordered 11/11/24 completed.

·       Whitwell way 8 X Cat 1 B potholes ordered 11/11/24 Not yet completed and 21-day target missed and being investigated with our contractor.

·       Brook Lane 30 X Cat 1 B potholes ordered 11/11/24 completed.

·       Cambridge Bridleway 12 over M11 emergency order raised due to cracking on footpath.

·       Whitwell Way vegetation / trees overhanging and enforcement letters sent.

Grantchester Road, Coton is on a three-monthly inspection frequency due to it being a Link Road in the Carriageway hierarchy. This road was last inspected on 6 November 2024 and is due to be inspected again on 10 Feb 2025.

The last inspection on the 6 November found:

·       Six carriageway Cat1b potholes which were ordered and fixed by the 3 December 2024.

·       Six carriageway Cat1b potholes which were ordered and fixed by the 4 December 2024.

The inspection prior to this also found carriageway potholes, two of which were Cat1a potholes, since repaired.

Further to the above, there are also a number of locations around the parish which will be considered for funding, (identified by the blue outlines in the below graphic), as individual capitally funded maintenance projects from 25/26 onwards.

This could mean they are prioritised for either a structural or preventative road repair. The following visual identifies these locations in the context of Coton Parish.

The long lists for those schemes which have been prioritised will be published in March 2025, and subsequently shared with parish councils so they are aware of where roads in their area rank compared to others around the county and which budget year they can expect them to be repaired in.

The Council believes the county’s roads, footpaths and cycle routes are important travel routes for its communities. They provide important links to public transport, local amenities, and employment opportunities.

This year it has invested a record amount into the repair of its highway network across the county. Unfortunately, this has still had to be targeted investment as the number of routes in need of repair exceeds the available funding.

I can assure you that improvements are also underway for how the Council identifies, repairs, and manages its highway network more proactively and robustly. This includes the use of digital systems to provide a further layer of assurance for its highway officers, when identifying highways defects for repair. This should in turn give more confidence to communities that the Council is committed to providing the expected level of service.

Yours sincerely,

Councillor Alex Beckett

Chair of the Highways and Transport Committee