Highways Agency

2. Consultation with English local highway authorities and others

The proposed criteria were derived to conform with the Agency's business plan objectives of minimising the whole life cost and disruption to the network and reducing traffic noise to benefit some three million people living within 600m of trunk roads. The proposed criteria were:

• dealing with the noisiest sites that affect the most people; this meant that we would endeavour to improve the situation for the maximum number of people who are closest to trunk roads in the earlier part of the programme;
• minimising disruption to general public and users of the network; this meant that we would try to combine this work with other planned works on the network and use construction, procurement and traffic management methods that speed up the works;
• minimising whole life cost, i.e. providing the right treatment at the right time with minimum disruption, and achieving value for money; we have a duty to protect the taxpayers' interest and wherever possible will try to programme works to fit in with maintenance needs.

The Agency wrote to and sought the views of:

1. All County Councils in England
2. All District Councils in England
3. London Boroughs affected by trunk roads
4. Transport for London
5. All Unitary Councils in England
6. All City Councils in England
7. All Metropolitan Councils in England
8. All Borough Councils in England
9. Local Government Association
10. Design, Build, Finance and Operate (DBFO) Companies

It also published the consultation letter on its website and the Government's central register of consultations hosted on www.ukonline.gov.uk

2.1 Summary of Responses to Consultation

2.1.1 Facts and Figures

The Agency issued its consultation letter on 29 December 2000 requesting comments by 23 March 2001. It was sent to 417 English local authorities and 12 other organisations; 92 of whom responded which was a reasonable level of return considering that not all local authorities are affected by concrete trunk roads.

Table below shows the level of response received from those who were issued with the consultation letter:

* The consultation letter was not sent to Parish Councils as they are not Highway Authorities. However, some received copies of the letter through their Highway Authority and one Parish Council contacted the Agency for a copy of the consultation letter.

445 letters and e-mails were received from individuals, MPs, campaign groups and other organizations shown below:

* 220 identical letters were received from different individuals campaigning for the resurfacing of A180. Their response has been considered as part of a campaign group instead of individuals.

* Since the beginning of July, 117 identical letters have been received from people living close to A50 Doveridge seeking priority for their road. Their response has been counted as part of a campaign group instead of individuals.