Issue - meetings

To welcome representatives from Balfour Beatty who will give a  presentation on the streetlight replacement programme in Cambridge Central.

 

 The Chair welcomed Joshua Cooke, Balfour Beatty, who gave a brief overview of the work that was being undertaken on the streetlight replacement programme throughout Cambridgeshire.

 

Work had begun in 2011 to replace of all the County Council street lighting with work due to finish in June 2016, with a maintenance programme of twenty years.

 

Comments from members of the public:

 

Shelia Gunn: The new lighting in Clifton Close is very poor and obscured by trees, the area is very dark and I feel very vulnerable. What can be done?

 

Councillor Holland: Had spoken to Mrs Gunn regarding this issue. Any lighting located in a centre of a street would be removed. This policy had impacted on Mrs Gunn intensified by the removal of street lights to the rear of the property.  The only way to replace the lights was to request a column from another ward in the City.

 

Joshua Cooke:  There was a criteria which should be followed with regards to requesting columns from other wards, although acknowledged it could be a difficult process. Recommendations should be brought forward by Councillors for the consideration of the Conservation and Design Team. If a street light was being obscured by a tree this should be reported to the Council to ruminate what can be done with the tree.

 

Guy Casey: As a resident of Nursery Walk, Balfour Beatty's literature and letters sent out to residents to provide information on the street lighting project stated that "plans detailing the extent of works can be viewed on our website". Under "What are we doing" there is also the statement that "location of columns may be moved to different locations". The question: when, during operations, Balfour Beatty makes a decision to move a column to different location, what is its official policy on notifying residents in advance so residents can view these plans and have the opportunity to raise any queries or concerns?

 

Joshua Cooke:  Plans could be viewed online and there had been a consultation period when residents could address issues through their local Councillor. In the instance of Nursery Walk, this particular case was under review with Balfour Beatty and the County Council, which had discussed the case with Mr Casey case directly.

 

The Policy for public notification was to download the plans on the online. There had been time delays to highlight changes to the plans but these were placed in the public domain as soon as possible. Communication with residents had been an initial leaflet drop explaining the proposals across the County. This would then be followed up with letter detailing when work would start in the area.

 

Comments from the Committee:

 

Councillor Reiner: Communication for Balfour Beatty had been poor with no literature being received in some cases. For the residents of Castle Ward, letters had been received after the work had started.  It had been very sad to see that the historic lampposts were being removed in Castle Ward.

 

Joshua Cooke: The original distributor of the literature had been changed as there had been problems.

 

Councillor Cearns: The County Council had taken too long to negotiate the contract (which was disappointing), during that period the Government had changed the criteria. This had left a less than ideal situation for the City which included losing the heritage street lighting. There were areas of the Country which had negotiated to keep their heritage lighting.

 

The consultation had been flawed and the plans difficult to understand which could have gone out to public consultation.

 

Heritage lighting had been taken away without any consultation. There were still no answers if the heritage lighting would be replaced in Market Ward despite discussions starting two years ago.

 

Concern had been expressed by County Council Officers on the delivery of the project in Cambridge. Assurances were needed that the project in the Centre of Cambridge would not start all in one go. 

 

An answer was required to the question ‘would the lighting would be replaced with heritage lighting which had been matched funding by Cambridge City Council in the City Centre’?

 

An apology was required for the poor quality of service.  

 

Joshua Cooke:  It was not within Balfour Beatty’s gift to decide where heritage lighting would be installed. Funding for heritage lighting was available for the historic quarter of the City. Future meetings would be held to discuss when this work would start.

 

In terms of other areas where heritage lighting might be installed this would be reviewed on a case by case basis. The contract instructed Balfour Beatty to install the standard solution unless instructed otherwise.

 

Councillor Hipkin: If this massive project had been undertaken by a different contractor would they been able to deliver the contract. Would they have faced the same issues? The complexity of the project should be taken into account and the reduction in future costs remembered.

 

What is the average time frame from when the new columns were installed to the redundant columns being removed?

 

Joshua Cooke: There was a variation in time scales but usually of a few weeks depending on a number of factors.

 

Councillor Cantrill: When would the residents of Newnham be advised when work would start and could an individual name be given as a contact?

 

Joshua Cooke: Plans can be viewed on the website or requested through local ward councillors. Contact details could be found on the literature that was sent out. Letters would be sent out to residents two weeks before the work was due to start.

 

Councillor Tucker:  Time scales were so tight from when plans were received to when work starts that it is very difficult to resolve any issues.

 

Councillor Holland: A beneficial outcome was required for those in Nursery Ward and Clifton Close. Consultation with Councillors was limited and the time scales for resolution extremely tight. When mistakes had been made by the contractor the limited time scales should be taken into account to try to readdress the issue.

 

Councillor Reid: Although an e-mail had been sent to Ward Councillors to advise that work was starting in Newham on 18 May but there had been no time table of works. Could this information be sent as soon as possible?

 

Joshua Cooke: It was difficult to advise when work would be start on specific streets. If there were problems this would have a knock on effect on work starting elsewhere.

 

The consultation with Councillors was 21 working days, if there were any issue (which was not often the case) and alternatives had been agreed by the Design and Consultation Team, if possible changes would be made.