£12m plan to repair 895 MILES of roads (the same distance as Land’s End to John O’Groats!)

UNCLASSIFIED roads in Kirklees could be repaired through a programme of improvements costing almost £12million.

A proposal to release the funding, which will tackle more than 120 roads and pavements across the borough, is expected to be agreed by the council’s decision-making Cabinet at its meeting next week.

The meeting will determine whether the methodology used to identify the improvements – which involved councillors from all 23 wards in Kirklees – is acceptable.

If it is approved then the two-year programme of work will begin in spring 2021. It is set to be completed by March 2023.

The council is aiming to minimise disruption by working with third parties such as utility companies to coordinate any planned roadworks. There will also be compliance with ongoing Covid-19 measures.

Unclassified roads are minor roads that carry lower volumes of traffic connecting smaller towns and villages as well as residential streets.

The network of unclassified roads in Kirklees is more than 895 miles (1,440km) long, which is roughly the distance between Land’s End in Cornwall and John O’Groats in the far north of Scotland.

Clr Naheed Mather, the council’s Cabinet Member for Environment, said the maintenance and improvements were “vital for the development of Kirklees” as a place where people want to live, work and visit.

She said council staff had worked closely with local councillors to identify which roads should be included in the new programme of works.

The cost of addressing the current backlog of unclassified roads in Kirklees that require immediate repair is currently estimated to be a massive £152m.

At a mass webinar meeting held in August last year councillors identified 450 priority unclassified roads and pavement sites, with a value of more than £41m.

As the value of those priorities exceeded the available £11.8m budget, so the amount of work was pared back accordingly.

However the council says there is a potential opportunity to extend the work programme beyond the current scheme.