South Close is an adopted road leading off South Drive, which is a private road close to the town centre. The road surface of South Close is in a very poor condition.

1. Does the resurfacing or repairing South Close feature in the Council’s work plan for this year or any of the previous 10 years?
Wokingham Borough Highways have no current plan to resurface South Close, Wokingham, and have no record of any earlier plan to resurface the street.

2. What reasons, if any, are recorded for this road not receiving any attention from the Council?
Wokingham Borough Highways approach to carriageway and footway maintenance is outlined in Volume 2, Section 5 of the Wokingham Borough Highway Maintenance Management Plan (HMMP), which is available as a downloadable PDF on the Wokingham Borough website at:
https://www.wokingham.gov.uk/roadworks-and-outdoor-maintenance/roadworks-and-road-maintenance/highways-maintenance-management-plan/
To summarise, nationally recognised indicators of highway condition are used as an objective measure of current highway condition, and form the basis of planned highway maintenance programmes.

3. If there is a list of roads needing repair or resurfacing, where does South Close feature in terms of priority?
Wokingham Borough’s planned highway maintenance programme for financial year 2022-23 is available as a downloadable PDF on the Wokingham Borough website at:
https://www.wokingham.gov.uk/roadworks-and-outdoor-maintenance/roadworks-and-road-maintenance/looking-after-our-roads/
South Close is not scheduled for surfacing in financial year 2022-23.

4. How long has South Close been on any such list, and has it ever been given anything other than the lowest level of priority?
As explained above in the answer to question 1., South Close is not on any programme of planned maintenance.

5. It could be argued that even a road of relatively low priority for attention should, if on a list of roads requiring attention, increase in priority over time - otherwise it would never stand a chance of being repaired. What is the Council’s policy in respect of the prioritising of roads for repair and resurfacing.
As explained above in the answer to question 3., Wokingham Borough Highways employ nationally recognised indicators of highway condition as the basis of planned highway maintenance. In addition, all streets in Wokingham Borough are inspected as least once every 12 months, and repairs are carried out where needed to keep the highway in a safe condition.