The opening hours are changing at the County Council’s Household Recycling Centres.

From Sunday March 28^th 2010, the new hours will be Monday to Sunday, 9.00 am to 6.15 pm every day (except Christmas Day and New Year’s Day).  These hours will be fixed all year round.

Currently opening hours alter twice a year at the start and end of British Summer Time.  The hours are:-

Summer time (BST) 8:00am – 7:45pm

Winter time (GMT) 8:00am – 4:45pm

These hours have a number of disadvantages:-

• There are some periods of lone working for the staff at the sites, resulting in reduced staff availability to assist customers.
• There can be fly tipping outside the gates in the autumn when the opening hours have reduced.
• They cause confusion because they vary, resulting in wasted trips by the public.

Changing the opening hours allows residents maximum access to the sites during daylight hours whilst providing the best staffing levels to ensure a quality service. It will also reduce fly tipping and bring GCC’s opening hours more in line with other neighbouring counties.

The Forest of Dean Recycling Centre is at the following location:

Oak Quarry- 1 mile north east of Coleford on the Speech House road

For information on the County Council’s Adverse Weather Plan, please use the following link: www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/winter

Pothole Repairs: Three Steps to Road Rescue

We are all aware of the unprecedented damage the severe winter weather has had on roads across the UK.

Repairing roads is a top priority for Gloucestershire County Council, which is why we have launched a campaign called ‘Operation Road Rescue’. I am writing to you directly to share more detail about our three pronged attack on road repairs:

1. 1.     Worst First

We are fixing the worst potholes with highest risk to safety first, followed by lower risk potholes. This might mean we only fill the worst potholes on a road now, leaving others for later. Please be patient as we go about our job of fixing the worst first. Teams are working around the clock as weather and conditions allow.

1. 2.     Patch

Where roads have larger areas of damage we will send in bigger teams with more machinery and material to carry out ‘patching’. £1.2 million of patching work is already in progress and extra patching gangs have been sent to our three highway areas.

1. 3.     Resurface

Where stretches of road are more seriously damaged we will look to resurface them. We are reviewing our resurfacing programme to ensure the highest damaged roads are resurfaced as a priority.

An emergency assessment of roads underpins our three stage road rescue programme. This inspection is focused on main roads and busy town centre walkways first then rural and residential roads. We are delivering the programme on the ground by temporarily moving staff to pothole repair and suspending minor works to concentrate on fixing roads.

Please be reassured that our highway teams are working as quickly and efficiently as possible, fixing potholes on a worst first basis. We share people’s frustrations, but repairing this amount of damage will take time to complete so please be patient and drive with care and caution.

For more information on our road rescue programme please visit www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/roadrescue

Finally, we will shortly be sending out copies of ‘Road Rescue Operation’ posters to all town and parish councils.

At its meeting on 1st February, the Parish Council Planning Committee, considered, among other items, an application from Clearwell/Stow Quarries to constuct a road from the quarries which will emerge on the B4228 at the Bearse. This will generate heavy traffic which will beed to negotiate the very sharp junction at Trow Green to take the lorry route to Bream. The Comittee believes that this will create road management and road safety issues at the junction (B4228 and B4231), and have made representations to the Forest of Dean Planning Committee and the Gloucestershire County Council Highways Department.

Potholes: Bulletin from GCC on 1st February

Gloucestershire County Council is launching its attack on potholes.

The Gloucestershire Road Rescue campaign will officially start today with almost 70 gangs already out on the streets repairing around 500 potholes every single day, compared to 150 a day last year.

The council has increased the number of staff working on potholes by 30% by diverting people from other roles to get the work done as quickly as possible.

The recent freezing weather combined with last year’s heavy winter and the floods of 2007 have really taken their toll on Gloucestershire’s 3,300 miles of road.

Last year we repaired 38,000 potholes compared to 25,000 the previous year and we expect the number to be much, much higher for 2010.

Repairing the damage is a mammoth task – one that will cost up to £5million – and people are asked to be patient and remember to drive carefully while the work is carried out.

Operation Road Rescue will take a three-pronged attack on repairs:

• Worst first: For safety we are fixing the most dangerous potholes first, which may mean that some potholes in a street will be repaired while others are left until later. It is essential that we work like this to ensure the most dangerous defects are repaired as quickly as possible. We’re haven’t forgotten the less serious potholes – they will be repaired as soon as the major work is complete.
• Patching: In some locations road surfaces have been severely damaged with dozens of potholes caused by the severe weather. Our safety inspection and area teams are prioritising areas where we will be carrying out larger patching works to repair these potholes.
• Resurfacing: We’re also in the process of re-prioritising our current resurfacing programme to take into account the damage that has happened due to the recent ice and snow. There is obviously a limited pot of money for major schemes like these so it isn’t possible to resurface every single road in the county.

Cllr Stan Waddington, cabinet member for environment, said: “Repairing the roads is a top priority for Gloucestershire County Council.

“We understand and share people’s frustrations on the state of the roads, and public may be thinking that we’re not doing enough.

“But I want to promise people, our Gloucestershire Highways teams are working as hard as possible filling around 500 potholes every single working day with gangs also working over the weekend.

“We’ve diverted staff from other jobs to ensure the work is done as quickly as possible, but fixing this amount of damage will still take time to complete.

“I would ask everyone to please be patient and remember to drive safely while this essential work is being carried out.”

For more information visit www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/roadrescue.