Roadworks ditched as council runs out of cash

ALMOST 100 requests for action to improve road problems in Solihull have been ditched because the council cannot afford to act on them.

Highways bosses at Solihull Council compiled a list of 130 sites around the borough where residents, councillors or other parties called for measures to tackle issues such as problem parking.

But just 11 have been identified as priorities to be included in the Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) programme for the coming financial year.

Another 28 have been added to a “reserve list” and might be progressed in future if money allows. The remaining sites have. been removed from the schedule altogether.

They will not be reconsidered in the next three years, unless there is a material change at the location.

Approving the 12-month programme, Councillor Ted Richards, the cabinet member for transport and highways, said he would not want to give false hope to residents whose requests had little prospect of being dealt with in the next three years.

“We have a budget of £30,000 from the Local Transport Plan, which limits the ability of what we can do,” he said.

“I think we have to be realistic about this. We have just not got the resources [to deal with them all], I don’t think we will ever have the resources because the amount of money that is available to us, even through the Local Transport Plan, has to be used for other functions within [the department] as well.

“It would be wrong if I was to mislead people by saying there’s a chance of getting these done.

“The answer is no, it won’t be in the forseeable future.”