Stuart Hughes

Well, what an awful weekend with Storm Eunice wreaking havoc across Devon… With over 250 trees being uprooted and affecting travel on the county highways our dedicated and professional teams were working around the clock responding to many of the 700 calls received in the Network Operations Control Centre as well as carrying out overnight winter service gritting as temperatures dropped below zero. I should like to take this opportunity in thanking those who heeded our warnings not to travel and as a result, there were no fatalities across the county. It's good to see the ongoing major resurfacing and highway drainage improvement scheme in Sidmouth is progressing well. The 12-week scheme, which is covering around one mile of the A375 from Temple Gardens to the junction with the Esplanade, started in January and has now reached the halfway point. Work involves repairs to a number of sections of damaged and collapsed drainage pipes and this has been completed on the stretch from Salcombe Road to All Saints Road and the roundabout, as well as in Fore Street and High Street. Resurfacing is due to take place in Fore Street and High Street between Thursday 3 March and Friday 11 March when the road will be closed overnight from 5.30pm until 7am. During the overnight closures, the diversion route will be via All Saints Road, Station Road and continue until the Esplanade. Return route vice versa. Drainage repairs are now taking place on small sections in the Temple Street and Vicarage Road area. The local traffic for Lawn Vista, Woolcombe Lane and Chandler’s Lane will be managed on site, maintaining the traffic flow systems in their current layout. Resurfacing will be undertaken on these stretches of the road from around Monday 14 March. When sections of Temple Street and Vicarage Road are closed the diversion route will be Vicarage Road / Temple Street north on the A375 Arcot Road then Sidford Road, left onto the A3052 Sidford High Street then left onto the B3176, Station Road; then left onto All Saints Road and Radway and Vicarage Road and vice versa. The scheme is going well and is on schedule so far, so a big thanks must go to our contractors. The whole town will benefit from this drainage and road reconstruction work so please bear with us for the remaining weeks of the scheme and if you need any further information on the work areas, road closures, and diversion routes etc then please visit the County Council’s roadworks webpages. Finally, in reply to a letter published recently in the Herald re the Sidmouth Pedestrianisation Scheme, I can confirm that the Chamber of Commerce were consulted on the scheme and in fact the Chairman was a member of the group which included Town and District that agreed on the scheme and which was advertised and went through a formal consultation process before being rubber-stamped by the East Devon Highways and Traffic Orders Committee. Until next time Stay Safe

The County Council are trialling new ways of working in the local community where overgrowing vegetation creates issues for highway users. The trial is a ‘Find, Inform, Fix’ approach and we are working with one of our tree framework contractors, Teign Trees and Landscapes. The work we are doing at present aims to:

Some really great news for Sidmouth with County Council’s street lighting having finally managed to arrange for replacement LED lanterns for all the streetlights along the Esplanade. Having looked at several alternative options but in the end we have agreed with Urbis to have totally new “Victory” lanterns manufactured, so visually there will be no change to the appearance of those already there. The new lanterns, as those changed over across the Sid Valley, will also be linked into the Telensa monitoring system which allows for remote control including dimming remotely from Exeter. Hopefully, we will be able to get an order to Enerveo (SSE’s new name if you weren’t aware!) in the next week or so and I believe that the lanterns, as Urbis have to make new tooling that’s required to form the polycarbonate bowls, will probably take 14–16 weeks to arrive, and so, realistically with the end of the financial year quickly approaching and that Enerveo’ s works program is already full until the end of March, the new lanterns won’t be able to be fitted until April at the earliest… So watch this space. It is also hoped that Sidmouth Town Council will be successful in securing some County Council Enhancement Grant for the repainting of the columns. The streetlights are currently painted matt black and the County Council would prefer this to remain so (especially as we have requested the new LED’s lanterns to be black) so hopefully, Sidmouth Town Council and County can source the matt black paint originally used. The Sidmouth coat of arms on the column doors will also have to be carefully hand-painted. The other good news is on the bridge front… Following the provision by the County Council of the new Alma Bridge, the refurbished Milford Bridge and recently refurbished Stowbrook Bridge, we are at long last aiming to put the Skinners Bridge at Fortescue leading to the Byes replacement out to tender. Due to working in and adjacent to water activities, the County Council want the appointed contractor to commence works on site from the 4th April.

As you will recall, the A375 on Vicarage Road in Sidmouth has recently undergone some extensive patching work, which is aimed at getting us through the next few months with a major scheme programmed for late January 2022 through to March 2022. This scheme has come about due to there being a very thin layer of surfacing/asphaltic material forming the A375 highway. This layer is overlying made ground/sandy silty clay material with many utility services such as gas, water and electricity which are very high in places. It has been patched several times in the past. Due to the location, the position of the utility services and the likely length of time and disruption a full highway reconstruction would need, the proposed works are not full highway reconstruction but will aim to provide a better surface and reduce the frequent patching works so far experienced. The work involved will be carried out in sections, with the contractor completing one section before opening up the next section of the work. The work to the shop area in Radway would be undertaken at night with the remaining section (mainly residential areas) to be completed in the daytime. This is in order to maximise time on site and minimise noise disturbance at night. The contractor will maintain 24/7 access for the post office and Openreach and has made contact with EDDC in order to coordinate the waste collections. And so now we can reveal the total length of the scheme will cover the length of highway from Temple Street at the junction with Temple Gardens, Vicarage Road, Radway, High Street and the full section of Fore Street to the Esplanade. Further communications will commence next month and will include a dedicated webpage, letters to relevant residents, businesses advising of impending condition survey and providing information on the main surfacing work including the link to the webpage, and information also issued via social media and press release with update to the Town Council. And finally an update on the new Eco Living bus shelters that I’ve been working on securing for Sidmouth with our Transport Coordination team along with Fernbank who having completed their survey of existing shelters proposes that this be a two or even three-stage process with stage one seeing the: Sidford Road inbound, adjacent to Drakes Avenue (outside Lockyer Lodge) seeing the removal of the existing shelter which is in a very poor state of repair, and replaced with a three-bay advertising parallel Eco Half Living Roof shelter. Sidford Road inbound, adjacent to Coulsdon Road, removal of existing shelter which is also in a very poor state of repair, replace with a three-bay advertising Eco Living Roof shelter. Sidford Road outbound, at Manstone. This is the shelter that is damaged on one of its bottom panels. Remove existing shelter which is in a very poor state of repair, replace with a three-bay advertising Eco Living Roof shelter. Fernbank needs a new shelter-sized roof (thinner roof) to fit onto some of the narrow footways going forward, in some of their other proposed locations.

As you may well recall in one of my earlier columns I mentioned the work that was being carried out by Devon County Councils material lab to find a suitable material to patch concrete roads. Higher Woolbrook Park in Sidmouth has been used as a trial site, which I worked extremely hard to get for the residents. The road is like many residential roads around Sidmouth that were made up of concrete sections when the estate was built and several years later a thin layer of tarmac was laid to make the road look more aesthetically pleasing to the eye. Over the last few years, some of this tarmac surface has started to peel away from the concrete and the road has developed a similar concrete cancer as was found in multi-storey car parks and shallow defects appeared (potholes). In places these started to get larger and I called for them to be filled. However, at that time there wasn’t a material the County Council’s term maintenance contractor used that was suitable and that’s when our Materials Lab got involved, carrying out many hours of tests on different substitute materials to see if any would work. Finally, working with our contractors we believe a solution has been found and Higher Woolbrook Park has undergone the first of a two-stage process by carrying out patching works to the affected areas. Apart from a few remedial works this now has to be left for up to 12 months to allow the work carried out to oxidise. Then, as long as this is successful and hasn’t failed, the second stage of micro asphalt will be applied. Unfortunately, we can’t carry out the second stage any sooner because if we did and the first stage starts to fail through not giving time to oxidise then we would have to remove all the dressing and that would be extremely costly. We’ve got to get this right and if successful the process can be rolled out to the many other concrete road sites that are also starting to show similar signs to that which have been seen at Higher Woolbrook Park. I do understand that the work that has been carried out doesn’t look that pleasing to the eye but this is a huge learning curve for everyone and the road is now free of defects. So let’s watch this space. There’s also some great news for the Sid Valley with all the works now being identified to convert the majority of streetlights within Sidmouth, Sidford and Sidbury over to LED and with the works orders going to the contractor SSE over the next few days means conversion works will be starting within the next couple of weeks. As part of this work and installation the new lanterns will be fitted with the required cells to permit them to be monitored and controlled via the Telensa base station that we have installed in Sidgard Road. This enables the lighting to be controlled remotely from Exeter and will also enable faults to be identified reducing the need to carry out scouting. Unfortunately, the ornate lanterns that are in situ in various locations around the town centre and Esplanade will not be converted during the first batch of works as separate orders need to be made due to the lead time for manufacture and delivery of the new lanterns but these will be converted over to LED at a later date this year.

So here we are with autumn fast approaching and with it lower-carbon E10 petrol, which is made with 10% ethanol, which is set to be introduced as standard at UK filling stations from next month (September 2021) under new plans by the government.

So here we are with autumn fast approaching and with it lower-carbon E10 petrol, which is made with 10% ethanol, which is set to be introduced as standard at UK filling stations from next month (September 2021) under new plans by the government.

So here we are with autumn fast approaching and with it lower-carbon E10 petrol, which is made with 10% ethanol, which is set to be introduced as standard at UK filling stations from next month (September 2021) under new plans by the government.

Following a hectic couple of months I’ve actually found time in my busy schedule to get into my column writing mode. As many areas are now starting to see work being carried out on footways/pavements, I thought it important to help all the readers understand that the work being carried out is not a resurfacing process, it is the application of a sealing coat to prolong the life of the existing materials. Devon County Council uses this process on surfaces which are still structurally sound but showing signs of deterioration. It is designed to seal the existing surface to stop water penetration which can lead to failure of the surface and would then require full reconstruction to be carried out. It is a maintenance operation in the same manner as regular painting of wooden window frames for example. The material is laid in the form of a slurry which is bitumen based with various additives to assist adhesion and setting of the material, it also has a small-sized aggregate component to provide surface texture and regulate small level differences. The initial appearance is very ‘black’ but this will soon tone down to a ‘grey’ colour similar to other surfaces. It is a gradual change as the material hardens and weathers during a couple of months, the surface finish will also become somewhat smoother during this time. To prevent water ingress to the underlying surface our contractors do try to cover the joints at front and back of the path which is why you may see a small ‘lip’ against the walls. An information sheet is also distributed to residents where the work is being carried out explaining the process. Devon County Council carry out a substantial programme of footway sealing work each year and the benefit of this in delaying the need for reconstruction of footways is considerable. The appearance of the work carried out is as we would expect for a newly applied treatment, the work will be inspected after the initial settling down period and any defects found will be attended to by the contractor as part of their programme.

Following a hectic couple of months I’ve actually found time in my busy schedule to get into my column writing mode. As many areas are now starting to see work being carried out on footways/pavements, I thought it important to help all the readers understand that the work being carried out is not a resurfacing process, it is the application of a sealing coat to prolong the life of the existing materials. Devon County Council uses this process on surfaces which are still structurally sound but showing signs of deterioration. It is designed to seal the existing surface to stop water penetration which can lead to failure of the surface and would then require full reconstruction to be carried out. It is a maintenance operation in the same manner as regular painting of wooden window frames for example. The material is laid in the form of a slurry which is bitumen based with various additives to assist adhesion and setting of the material, it also has a small-sized aggregate component to provide surface texture and regulate small level differences. The initial appearance is very ‘black’ but this will soon tone down to a ‘grey’ colour similar to other surfaces. It is a gradual change as the material hardens and weathers during a couple of months, the surface finish will also become somewhat smoother during this time. To prevent water ingress to the underlying surface our contractors do try to cover the joints at front and back of the path which is why you may see a small ‘lip’ against the walls. An information sheet is also distributed to residents where the work is being carried out explaining the process. Devon County Council carry out a substantial programme of footway sealing work each year and the benefit of this in delaying the need for reconstruction of footways is considerable. The appearance of the work carried out is as we would expect for a newly applied treatment, the work will be inspected after the initial settling down period and any defects found will be attended to by the contractor as part of their programme.