The Committee received a report which set out details of the outputs that had been delivered by the Winter Service Plan 2022-23, of the Winter Service Plan review that had been carried out to ensure compliance with the Highway Act 1980 and ‘Well-Managed Highway Infrastructure: A Code of Practice’ and sought approval for the Winter Service Plan 2023-2024.  A copy of the Winter Service Plan 2023-2024 was attached to the report at Appendix 1 and a Financial Implications Report was attached to the report at Appendix 2.

The report explained that the 2022-2023 winter season had been relatively mild overall although interspersed with colder spells including one brief snow event.  However, there had been numerous occasions when the temperature reached the trigger point for precautionary salting action, (below 1^oC and predicted to go below freezing), resulting in 51 primary runs and five secondary runs.  The colder spells, including the single snow event, had not been severe or prolonged enough for activation of the Snow Plan.  There had been no issues with salt supply/delivery which had enabled the contractor to maintain stock levels throughout the winter season.  There had been no issues with the contractor replenishing the grit bins as and when required.  The winter decision making process to determine when to salt had worked well during the last winter season and the Vaisala weather stations had provided the correct data for informed decisions to be made.

The report added that the joint arrangement/agreement with Wokingham Borough Council, through their Consultants, Volker Highways, for providing the decision-making service, had worked well and delivered against the set key performance indicators during the 2022-2023 winter season. The Winter Service Plan 2022-2023 had provided a robust service for the duration of the winter period with no disruption to the primary and secondary road network during the season, except for some inevitable disruption during the snow event.

A review of the Winter Service Plan 2022-2023 had been carried out and the main points, including updates for the Winter Service Plan 2023-2024 were summarised in the report.

Resolved -

(1)      That the outputs delivered by the Winter Service Plan 2022-2023 be noted;

(2)      That the Winter Service Plan review carried out to ensure compliance with the Highways Act 1980 and ‘Well-managed Highway Infrastructure: A Code of Practice’ be noted;

(3)      That the Winter Service Plan 2023-2024 be approved.