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Spending axe is good news for county roads
The budget for repairing potholes in Lancashire is increasing year on year - despite the government’s huge spending cuts and mass public sector job losses.
Lancashire county council’s road maintenance budget is increasing from £19.6m this year to 19.9m next year and the following year. It then carries on rising to hit a high of £21m in 2013/14,
It will only fall in four years time when it is cut back to £18.5m,
LCC is also seeing an increase in funding for small scale congestion-busting schemes.
The Integrated Transport Block, which funds projects costing less than £5m such as road safety schemes, bus priority schemes and cycling projects, is increasing from £8.2m in 2011/12 to £12.3m in 2014/15.
The cash increases will delight frustrated motorists fed up with traffic jams and the crumbling state of the county’s road.
The LEP revealed earlier this year how county hall paid out an astonishing £500,000 in compensation over damage or injuries caused by potholes over the last five years.
But it is likely to bewilder those council staff set to lose their jobs as major cuts are made to other budgets - the GMB union has warned that LCC will lose more than 6,000 jobs over the next three years.
The highways maintenance grant covers the maintenance of all roads and carriageways plus footways, bridges, street lights, signs and traffic lights and is also used to pay for major road resurfacing.
Lancashire’s budget appears too have benefited from a change in the way the grant is calculated. Ministers believe, under the current formula, councils that keep up with highways maintenance are effectively being punished for good work, while those that fail to perform well are benefiting because they get extra cash.
Local transport minister Norman Baker said: “We recognise the importance of the local road network to the economy, which is why we are investing more than £3bn in local highways maintenance over the next four years.”
Earlier this year Lancashire County Council admitted it would never be able to fix all its crumbling roads and pavements because it would cost £153m – around £100 for every person living in the county.
Tim Ashton, Cabinet member for highways and transport, welcomed the investment, which is on top of the planned Heysham M6 link road.
He said: “I recognise how important it is to invest in our roads as they’re essential to the functioning of our economy and to people’s everyday lives – shops and manufacturers need to receive and deliver goods on time and people need them to get to work, school and visit friends and family.
“I’ve demonstrated that road maintenance is a genuine priority for the county council by investing £5m from our own reserves this year on top of the funding provided by the government which has allowed us to carry out more resurfacing schemes than in previous years.”
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Wednesday 23 May 2012
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Comments
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one more guild
Thursday, December 30, 2010 at 03:53 PMSpending axe is good news for county roads? I don't think so! If spending is maintained in one area, cuts - in services and staff - will have to be greater in other areas, Even so, the enormous loss of experienced staff under the Turtonator is going to make the care of the highway network much more problematic .
Pedantic Poster
Wednesday, December 29, 2010 at 06:55 PM£300,000 rise this year? thats a 1.5% increase. with inflation running higher than this, the rise is wages and materials costs means that this is a real terms cut.
preston's best
Wednesday, December 29, 2010 at 02:55 AMshame really its having to let staff go. esp since most of these staff prob live in lancashire so spend in lancashire etc and pay taxes into lancashire. you'd think any organisation would protect its staff first. roads can wait, its livelyhoods here.
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