Capital gets more of holes pot than us
COUNTY council areas such as Lancashire are being outspent on road repairs by more urban local authorities that have far fewer miles of road in need of maintenance.
That is according to the County Councils Network (CCN), which says London’s boroughs were able to spend three times more than so-called “shire counties” on maintaining their roads last year. The capital’s councils shelled out £62,350 for every mile of road, compared to £20,885 in county areas.
But the Advertiser has learned that Lancashire County Council spent marginally more on repairing its roads during 2019/20 than the average for other county authorities – at £24,186 per mile.
The CCN claims that lower funding for county areas and disproportionate regional investment has made places such as Lancashire the “poor relations” when it comes to highways funding.
The organisation’s research shows that 9%of the road network belonging to England’s 36 county councils was in need of repair last year – a total of 11,117 miles.
While the percentage of repairs required in London was similar – 8% of the capital’s network – the total mileage was more than 15 times lower, at just 730 miles.
The man responsible for Lancashire’s roads was not greatly surprised by the difference – but said that he would be “grateful for any extra funding” that could come the county’s way.
“London is the capital city and it’s a totally different situation – in Lancashire we have a lot more country roads and a very diverse network,” said Lancashire County Council’s Conservative cabinet member for highways, Keith Iddon.
“We get a government grant and we have topped that up ourselves – this administration has put in an extra £15m.
“We have also improved by 12% in the latest survey of public opinion of driver satisfaction with repairs to potholes and damaged roads – making us one of the most improved counties in the country.
“I’d like a bigger settlement, but as things stand, it’s the hard work of our highways staff which has without doubt made our improving position possible,” County Cllr Iddon added.
The Government has promised a £2bn pothole repair fund over the next four years and the CCN is calling for counties to receive the same proportion of the cash as they did of a previous one-off grant in 2018 – 74%.
Lancashire County Council is assessed by the Department for Transport as being one of the best-performing authorities for road repairs – entitling it to the maximum share from its highways maintenance fund, with County Hall allocated £3.8m in the next financial year.