Labour votes down pavements improvement demand
Proposing, Cllr Greg Stone said : This motion is on an issue which I imagine will strike a chord with all members across the city. The condition of the city’s pavements is a concern to many residents of the city. The poor and deteriorating state of pavements presents a particular risk to older people. I have been motivated to bring this motion because of a growing number of serious injuries to elderly constituents who have suffered trips and falls on uneven pathways and pavements.
Those of us who have served our communities in this council for a long time will be aware that the council used to carry out resident satisfaction surveys citywide. These have not been carried out since 2017. I have asked senior officers about why it no longer seems to be concerned about systematic gauging of local satisfaction with council services, but did not receive a particularly satisfactory reply. The last such Survey recorded that 44% of responded were dissatisfied with the condition of roads and pavements in their neighbourhood, the highest level of dissatisfaction of any issue of concern. I daresay that if the exercise was repeated now, that figure would be appreciably higher.
I am aware that the council’s own figures for the pavement maintenance backlog in the city in January 2024 was £109 million. I believe that this figure is based on a calculation of the cost of work urgently needed to fix serious defects, rather than a provision for ongoing annual maintenance. There has been very little annual maintenance of pavements in recent years. Annual ward allocations for pavement maintenance have essentially stopped since 2011. The maintenance backlog continues to grow year on year, and like with the potholes on road surfaces, pavements have become increasingly uneven and unsafe with seemingly no strategy for improving them.
In the past, wards had budgets of around £200,000 a year which was not a fortune, but with careful stewardship, ward councillors could ensure that streets in particularly poor condition could be improved. Equally importantly, council taxpayers could see that the council was taking action to fix problems they had reported in their neighbourhood.
Over several years, I and my ward colleagues took steps to ensure particular parts of my ward had a programme to tackle the worst affected neighbourhoods, but I regret that following a change of control and a change of priorities, that budget stopped. Sherfield Drive and St Julien Gardens on Cochrane Park were the last two streets in the area due to be tackled, but those plans had to be shelved, and now, twelve years on, are in an extremely poor condition.
I think it is important to recognise that this trend is being exacerbated by problems of pavement parking. Cochrane Park was built in the 1930s with streets narrower than modern standards, and cars frequently park on the pavement. The rise in heavier vehicles like pick-up trucks and home delivery vans parking with two wheels on the pavement has inevitably led to more and more flagstones and kerbstones being broken and hazardous.
When writing this speech , I paused to take a phone call from a resident of St Julien Gardens on Cochrane Park who recently sustained a nasty injury and now lacks the confidence to go out alone because they fear being injured again, who is seeking advice about a personal injury compensation claim. I have begun to lose count of the number of residents who have contacted me in recent months with distressing reports about injuries they or an elderly relative have sustained.
As a councillor for over 25 years who has been conscientious about prioritising local neighbourhoods and responding promptly when concerns are raised, it causes me pain to know that my constituents are being badly injured because of the dangerous state of the pavements. The pain experienced by my residents who have sustained broken bones, broken jaws, fractured limbs, lost teeth and black eyes is even greater.
Some may well ask well what steps I have taken to address the problem. I would like to assure them that I have always been assiduous about reporting the loose, rocking, and uneven flags and kerbs I encounter in the ward. However, I think it is important to record that in some of the worst affected areas, including Bretton Gardens and St Julien Gardens, I have reported numerous defects on numerous occasions. I generally get an automated “job completed” response. Sometimes I can see that a flag or two has been replaced or re-set. More and more however, I am finding that jobs reported as complete are left untouched. When I have sought to establish why this is, I have been advised that it is at the discretion of services manager to determine when such faults will be fixed, or perhaps even if they will be fixed.
I am not unaware of the difficulties officers face in dealing with a situation whereby the level of repairs needed is far outstripping the resource available to tackle it. But I can recall a time when there were statutory performance standards on tackling reported defects. If the policy has changed I don’t seem to recall that being reported anywhere. If there has been a stealth change in policy I invite the administration to confirm that in the chamber tonight. The public deserve to know, and they deserve to know what the current performance levels are. I imagine that management information reports are collected on pavement defects and repairs, but I don’t know how widely they are being shared with members. For these reasons, I seek to trigger a Councillor Call for Action on this issue to request a scrutiny investigation and policy review of this area, covering performance management and recommendations of how this failure of public policy can be addressed.
It is said that the Road to Hell is paved with good intentions, but even the good intentions have worn out in recent years. I urge the new Government to take urgent steps to introduce legislation on pavement parking and to ensure that it invests in pedestrians and pavements as well as potholes. I look forward to working with colleagues across the chamber to get this issue looked at so that we can start to get our pavements fixed and fewer old people are in hospital beds with their broken jaws wired up being fed through a tube.
Seconding, Cllr Wendy Taylor said : In November 2021 I brought a motion to Council which pointed out that
1. the highways network is the most valuable asset of the City Council with a full replacement cost of £3bn. It is used by every resident and visitor to the city and every journey begins and ends with a road or footpath. The economic and social wellbeing of the city relies on the network being safe, accessible and fit for purpose.
2. That as a result of focussing the funding on the principal network and some harsh winters the condition of the unclassified roads has deteriorated to 19%.
3. Newcastle had a maintenance backlog of £184 million (roads £75 million and footpaths £109 million).
4. That over 200 streets in Newcastle had more than 80% of the length needing treatment.
5. That potholes, uneven surfaces and broken pavements are a serious risk to cyclists and pedestrians.
6. That poor pavements are a particular risk to frail, disabled and visually impaired residents.
7. That mending potholes is a short-term solution and not cost-effective
8. That the poor state of Newcastle’s residential roads and pavements is one of the top concerns of local residents It’s really disappointing that nearly 3 years later, rather than seeing some improvement, the situation has become even worse. Every time I walk around my ward I find examples of significant trip hazards, loose and uneven paving stones and large potholes. These remain a serious hazard to pedestrians and cyclists and a cause of trips, falls and injuries. I know of one cyclist who sustained a serious injury due to potholes in one of Dene and South Gosforth residential streets and a resident who broke his leg due to an uneven pavement. In November 2021, I suggested the Council should prepare a business case to consider a capital investment to tackle the maintenance backlog. The motion was rejected and with rising interest rates, that option would now be much more difficult. I’d love to think that the new Labour Government will announce major funding to tackle this backlog of repairs, but I’m not holding my breath. Though having just seen my party win its best General Election result for a century, perhaps miracles can happen!
However the Council does need to accept we can’t continue to let our pavements deteriorate and that residents deserve that this problem is given more priority. Let’s write to the new ministers and see what they say. I hope it isn’t just that they will think about it in a few years time
Speaking in favour of the motion, Cllr Pauline Allen was one of several Councillors from the Liberal Democrats who highlighted what was befalling Newcastle’s citizens ever day : , I hope that all of us in this chamber are here because we want the residents of this great city to lead happy and healthy lives.
However, at present we have a situation where the safety of some of our residents is being compromised by pavement defects that are causing them physical harm, expense and distress.
I can give two examples that I’ve been told about recently. Both involve female residents of Parklands Ward, neither of whom have walking difficulties, and both are otherwise fit and healthy.
Resident 1 tripped on an uneven pavement and suffered two badly bruised knees, a grazed lower lip and a knock to her teeth requiring dental treatment. This was obviously expensive as well as painful and stressful.
Resident 2 has recently had two falls on uneven pavements. In the first she suffered a head injury, an avulsion fracture, black eyes and other damage that required several visits to the RVI, one of which took 10 hours.
In the second fall she suffered a cracked scaphoid, which involved being in a splint for weeks, as well as other injuries involving 3 hospital appointments. In each of these incidents she broke a pair of bifocal spectacles involving costs of hundreds of pounds. So, she suffered quite serious physical damage, the stress of multiple hospital visits and the expense of replacing spectacles twice. This is not right.
Neither of these residents have been kept safe on our streets, and unfortunately these are not isolated incidents.
In Parklands Ward we have many street trees, which most residents love and wish to retain, but these trees bring additional hazards when the roots lift the pavements in places and cause additional trip hazards. We don’t want to lose trees, we just want a service that repairs and makes safe the pavements around the trees,
So, I’d like to see this council take immediate action on this issue and I hope that the new government is about to step in with funding to make our city streets safer for us all to walk on.