Local councillors have seized on figures from Herts County Council, showing spending on road and pavement maintenance and improvements have reduced every year over the past four years.
Spending on highways has plummeted from £39.2 million in 2013-14 to £30.1 million this year. This is despite inflation meaning that less can be done for the same amount of money, and the ever-deteriorating state of local roads and pavements.
Cllr Malcolm Cowan, Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group at County Hall said, "The Conservatives are continually telling residents that spending on roads is going up. These figures, provided by independent and council officers, show that in fact this vital spending has fallen every year for four years".
"The council are forecasting an increase next year. However they did exactly the same this time last year and instead we have seen another fall".
"No wonder local residents are complaining more and more about potholed roads and trip hazards on pavements".
|
Highways Investment 2017/18 How much money is allocated to the maintenance and improvement of carriageways and footways for next financial year? | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Capital [£k] |
Revenue [£k] |
Total [£k] |
|
| Carriageway Maintenance | |||
| Cat 4 Schemes | 21370 | - | 21370 |
| Cat 2 | 737 | - | 737 |
| Cat 1 | 3430 | 268 | 3698 |
| Total Carriageways | 25537 | 268 | 25805 |
| Footway Maintenance | |||
| Cat 4 Schemes | 2700 | - | 2700 |
| Cat 2 | 2149 | - | 2149 |
| Cat 1 | - | 1105 | |
| Total Footways | 5954 | - | 5954 |
| Integrated Transport Projects (Improvements) | 8165 | 532 | 8697 |
|
Historical Trends What was the amount spent on the maintenance and improvement of carriageways and footways in the past 4 years? | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013/14 [£k] |
2014/15 [£k] |
2015/16 [£k] |
2016/17 [£k] |
|
| Carriageways | ||||
| Cat 4 Schemes | 20585 | 20607 | 19290 | 18577 |
| Cat 1 & 2 | 4793 | 4066 | 4082 | 4156 |
| Total | 25378 | 24673 | 23372 | 22733 |
| Footways | ||||
| Cat 4 Schemes | 2500 | 2500 | 1728 | 2294 |
| Cat 1 & 2 | 3458 | 2820 | 2826 | 2500 |
| Total | 5958 | 5320 | 4554 | 4794 |
| Integrated Transport Projects (Improvements) | 7888 | 7944 | 3724 | 2583 |
Notes:
- Budgets are for delivery of works and exclude design costs, overheads and other ancillary costs
- Figures for 2016/17 and 2017/18 are projections as Cat 1 and Cat 2 are responsive services
- The scale of the Integrated Transport Projects programme is very much dependent upon the amount of third party funding available
- Excludes Little Hadham Bypass
Find out more about our work - sign up for emails today:
Share this post on social media:
