A565 (Hansard, 12 July 2001)

§ Mr. Jamieson

I have asked the Chief Executive of the Highways Agency, Tim Matthews, to write to my hon. Friend.

Letter from Tim Matthews to Mrs. Curtis-Thomas, dated 12 July 2001: The Transport Minister, David Jamieson, has asked me to reply to your recent question about plans to maintain the A565 trunk road between Bootle and the Seaforth Flyover. I am aware of your previous concerns about the appearance of the A565—which is currently a trunk road maintained by this Agency. As you may I know, we have announced proposals to "detrunk" this section of the A565 and it is planned that ownership and management responsibility for the road will transfer to the Local Authority, Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council, by June 2003. Until then we will continue to maintain the road through our Managing Agent, Lancashire County Council's Highways Consultancy. In my letter of 6 February (copy enclosed) I said that we intended to work with Sefton's Cleaning Services Manager to improve the standard of street sweeping and litter removal. Unfortunately, progress on improving the appearance of the Bootle to Seaforth Flyover section of the read has not been as swift as I would have liked, for which I apologise. We have inspected this stretch of road on several occasions since I wrote to you. The only significant issue concerns the ongoing problems with the standard of sweeping and cleaning of the road provided by Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council. As a result, we have, as an extra measure, instructed our Term Maintenance Contractor, Edmund Nuttall Ltd., to remove all weeds by hand and to clear the detritus within the next fortnight. In addition to this, we are in discussion with the Council's Cleaning Services Manager with regards to road sweeping and cleaning. Regular cleaning is important to inhibit weed growth, preventing the build up of material that allows them to grow, and increasing the effectiveness of spraying them. We expect to see improvements to the road's appearance as a result of these measures in the near future. If you would like any further information about this matter, you may wish to contact the Agency's Project Sponsor for this section of route, Alex Millet, as Sunley Tower, Piccadilly Plaza, Manchester, M1 4BE (telephone 0161 930 5627).