Call for review of road maintenance in wider Suffolk

It follows a pledge from the new Transport Secretary, Louise Haigh MP, during an interview with the Guardian to commit "unprecedented levels of funding" to encourage active travel.

The motion, which is being proposed by councillors Ruth Leach and Keith Welham to full council on Thursday, October 17, argues footways and pavements need to be "made safe, maintained fit for purpose and given a higher level of priority than has been the case in the past".

Councillor Ruth Leach (Image: Suffolk County Council)

This is particularly important, it adds, given the ageing population of the county and the examples of residents not being properly protected from injury while walking.

According to Government figures, 71% of trips last year were less than five miles and, with Active Travel England striving for half of all trips within towns and cities to be walked, wheeled or cycled by 2030, there would be an increasingly higher number of people being affected by these.

To address this, the motion calls for an "urgent cross-party review" of specific parts of the Highways Maintenance Operational Plan - the document which dictates how the local highways maintenance service should be provided to fulfil the council’s statutory duties and "philosophy of the code of practice".

The plan weighs up the location and size of defects, separates them into categories and then provides a response time to address them.

The review would focus on the parts of the plan relating to footway potholes and footway level differences within urban and busy pedestrian areas, especially where a recent fall has been reported.

For instance, a footway pothole under the council’s 20mm benchmark does not require recording and has no timeline for repair - the same is the case for footway level differences falling under the same level.

The motion states: “Meeting the statutory responsibility to maintain pavements to accommodate this increased pedestrian usage and to reduce risk for footpath users, is imperative.

“It is vital that both the baseline for defect intervention (currently 20mm) and the category of response time for repair is reviewed.”