Conservatives propose to more than double
highways maintenance spend
Action now to avoid ‘backlog bombshell’ in 10 years
The Conservative administration on South Gloucestershire Council has announced plans to more than double the planned maintenance spend on its highways to £3.5M a year.
The Council currently spends £1.5M a year on the maintenance of its roads, footways and cycleways, but has not been enough to halt a steady decline in the condition of the network. The Conservative administration is now proposing to increase this by an extra £2M a year.
The Council has calculated that if extra investment is not made now, then the current £4M maintenance backlog will balloon to £85M in 10 years.
Cllr Heather Goddard, Conservative Cabinet Member for Communities, said:
“In 2007, the Administration inherited a significant and worsening highways maintenance backlog.
The evidence suggests that an investment of £2M a year for 10 years is needed to tackle the current £4 million backlog, raise the current standards of our roads, footpaths and cycleways, and deliver long term value for money. Such investment would also create extra jobs.
We need to move towards a responsible and long-term planned approach to our highway network because, if this investment is not made, then we will face a backlog bombshell of £85M in 10 years.
It is not clear how it could then realistically be reduced.”
Cllr Valerie Lee, (Con, Siston):
“There seems to have been this view in the past that if you allow roads to crumble away, then you can some how bully people onto public transport.
Such an approach simply doesn’t work in rural areas, like Siston, because there often isn’t a public transport alternative and people need to use their cars. I think rural residents in South Gloucestershire will particularly welcome this new investment.”
Parkwall councillors, Tony Olpin and Nick Barrett, said in a joint statement:
“We are delighted with this extra investment because this is something we have been constantly pushing for.
We hope that it will lead to better techniques being used and the right job being done in the right place because some of our road surfaces have more pot hole repairs than original road surface.
Crumbling footpaths also represent a danger to our elderly and disabled residents and this is something that people living in Barrs Court and Cadbury Heath regularly raise with us.”
