Fox Lane and District Residents' Association
London N13 & N14

Questions asked by the FLDRA to Doug Taylor and the Pavements department at Enfield Council.

1 Which department is responsible for planned maintenance and reactive
repairs on pavements? What is the contact address? Which contractors carry out
works?

Highway Operations are the department responsible for carrying out both
Planned Maintenance (pavement.renewal@enfield.gov.uk
<mailto:pavement.renewal@enfield.gov.uk>) (footway renewal programme) and
Routine and Reactive (routinereactive.highways@enfield.gov.uk)
<mailto:routinereactive.highways@enfield.gov.uk)%20are>(day to day safety inspections) carried out within Enfield. Kenson Highways carry out our defect repairs.

2 How large is the budget this financial year for the above?

Reactive budget for defect repairs is £2.5 million, the Planned Maintenance
budget for this financial year is £610,000 for the Boroughs footway network.

3 How many kilometres of pavement are within the borough and the Lakes Estate?

There are 1100km of footway in the Borough and 9.26km of footway on the Lakes
Estate .

4 What is the process for routine inspection and monitoring of pavements

The safety inspections are carried out on Monthly, Quarterly, Six monthly and
yearly

5 What percentage of the borough pavements are flag stones? Is the policy to
move to tarmac?

We do not have the individual percentage of paving stone footways for
Enfield. The current footway policy is to remove paving stones and replace them
with tarmac except in some conservation areas and Town Centres.

6 What is the current policy on prioritisation of works?

All planned works are prioritised on a worst first basis. Potential schemes
highlighted by members of the public, Councillors and Highway Inspectors
undergo condition surveys. These surveys involve scoring the severity and
frequency of 8 footway defects. The score is then multiplied by a weighting
factor based on the footfall of the given section of footway. These final
scores form a priority list from which the top 10-15 schemes are taken each
year. Routine safety inspections are also carried out to the frequency given in
Q4 above and what is found while doing these are assessed with regards to
safety, location etc and what repair priority these are then given which are to
make safe within two hours and a follow on within a 7-day repair and or a 28
day.

7 What percentage of the budget is spent on reactive repairs?

As detailed in Q2 £610,000 is spent on footway planned maintenance, but there
is not specific split in the £2.5m reactive budget with repairs to footways and
carriageways carried out as they arise

8 How are contractor works on pavements assessed after completion?

Reactive Repairs are audited on site and internal Enfield and contract audit
meetings take place. Planned works are monitored throughout their time on site
with final snagging walks taking place immediately after works are completed to
pick up any final issues.

9 What is the standard for intervention on a trip hazard?

We are on an investigatory level of 25mm on the footway and 40mm in the
carriageway.

10 How many complaints on pavements has the Council received in the past year
and how many relate to the Lakes Estate as defined in Q18?

Fox Lane – 5 reports on pavements received on this road in the past year

Grovelands Road – 0 report on pavements received on this road in the past year

Conway Road – 1 report on pavements received on this road in the past year

Old Park Road – 4 reports on pavements received on this road in the past year

Lakeside Road – 3 reports on pavements received on this road in the past year

Derwent Road – 4 reports on pavements received on this road in the past year

Ulleswater Road – 1 report on pavements received on this road in the past year

Harlech Road – 0 report on pavements received on this road in the past year

Selborne Road – 1 report on pavements received on this road in the past year

11 What is the cost of total replacement of flagstones on the Lakes estate as
defined in Q18?

We do not have this information

12 What is the cost of replacement of a single flagstone?

Cost for 1 sqm of 63mm thick paving is £21.50. This is from our contract rate
items and there are different costs for different thickness of paving slabs, so
use this as an example.

13 How many complaints did the Council receive in the past 12 months on trips?

We cannot search for trips on the highway separately. Our system records
problems with the pavement and if a customer has reported a trip it will be as
part of the information included in their report.

14 How many resulted in Council accepting responsibility and liability and
what was paid in compensation?

No claims of liability were accepted by the Council in the past 12 months

15 What are the defences against a claim for compensation?

In terms of defences, the Council has two main defences under The Highways
Act 1980:

* Section 41 – the alleged defect is not at investigation level
* Section 58 – the alleged defect is at or above investigation level, but the
Council were either not on notice of the defect prior to the material accident,
or the defect was not present on the last Area Walk prior to the incident, or
both. Basically, the Council has to prove it has a suitable system of
inspection and maintenance in place.</mailto:routinereactive.highways@enfield.gov.uk)%20are></mailto:pavement.renewal@enfield.gov.uk>

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<mailto:pavement.renewal@enfield.gov.uk><mailto:routinereactive.highways@enfield.gov.uk)%20are>. 16 Are all the costs of work met from the
common capital programme or are there any funds the Council can bid for?

All costs for the planned maintenance programme are met from the common
capital programme. Funding does exist for construction works, but bids must
incorporate strict process and or partnerships/ outcomes. Unfortunately general
maintenance isn’t covered within any pots that we are aware of but
investigation of other funding streams is something Highways will continue with
in an effort to supplement existing budgets.

17 Are there any London comparison data on the state of our pavements?

There is no comparison data available

18 What do the records show for repairs on the following streets;

Fox Lane – 72 safety defects have been identified along this road in the past
12 months

Grovelands Road – 57 safety defects have been identified along this road in
the past 12 months

Conway Road – 68 safety defects have been identified along this road in the
past 12 months

Old Park Road – 50 safety defects have been identified along this road in the
past 12 months

Lakeside Road – 36 safety defects have been identified along this road in the
past 12 months

Derwent Road – 45 safety defects have been identified along this road in the
past 12 months

Ullswater Road – 33 safety defects have been identified along this road in
the past 12 months

Harlech Road – 17 safety defects have been identified along this road in the
past 12 months

Selborne Road – 21 safety defects have been identified along this road in the
past 12 months

19 Where a pavement is damaged by residential or commercial construction
works accessing by vehicles how does the Council identify a problem and how
does it get redress

We are either advised/notified that there are builders or another third party
working on the highway causing damage via the Enfield report it and or these
are located when we are on our safety inspections within Enfield. We also have
numerous council staff frequently traveling around Enfield who also reports on
these activities. We will always follow up on all damage caused and where
possible we will charge for this damage that has been caused.</mailto:routinereactive.highways@enfield.gov.uk)%20are></mailto:pavement.renewal@enfield.gov.uk>