B&NES Council to spend extra £3m on road repairs

An additional £3 million of extra money for highways maintenance will form part of the budget proposals for next year put forward by Bath & North East Somerset Council’s Cabinet.

A decision to bring forward £500,000 of this £3 million extra money in 2009/10 is intended to be taken by the Cabinet and follows urgent meetings between the Cabinet and highways officers about the deterioration of the network caused by the recent bad weather. This allocation enables highways inspectors to carry out the Cabinet’s wishes of increasing the amount of repairs immediately.  

The Cabinet is proposing that the remaining additional funding will help improve and maintain road surfaces so that fewer pothole repairs are required in the future to avoid a larger repair backlog and associated costs to the local taxpayer.       

Councillor Charles Gerrish, Cabinet Member for Customer Services, said, “Local councils across the country all face the same challenge which is how to manage the problems caused by a highways network battered by atrocious weather conditions for two years in a row.

“The AA has suggested that local authorities have an average road repair funding shortfall of £6 million each. As yet, no additional funding has been forthcoming from Central Government. The Cabinet is proposing an extra £3 million next year to improve the highway standards. This significant eighty-five percent boost to the existing budget will help the Council react to any immediate repairs required due to the bad weather and invest in planned maintenance, like surface dressing, to prevent the future deterioration of the roads which will save local taxpayers money in the long-term.”

In 2009/10, the Council will spend £3.5 million on improving highway surfaces. For 2010/11 this figure is proposed to be up to £6.5 million. The additional money is a one-off sum. The Council would like to spend more on improving highway surfaces but is hampered by Government under funding the Council on transport, for example there is a £1.3 million shortfall this year on over-60s bus passes totalling a £5 million shortfall since the Government scheme started. In addition to this, the Council is short changed by £2.5 million that Central Government’s own calculations say we are entitled to.

The Council will continue to press the Government to better support local authorities financial pressures, which includes giving taxpayers in Bath and north east Somerset the money they are entitled to for the Council to increase investment in the roads even further.