Staffordshire Highways workers with (from left) county councillor Mark Winnington, county cllr and leader Philip Atkins and county councillor Mike Maryon

£30 million investment in the county's highways

The county council's new administration has announced it will double the money spent on maintaining Staffordshire's roads network over the next three years by pumping in an extra £30 million.

The news comes within the first 50 days of the new look council leadership taking charge.

Council Leader Phillip Atkins described the cash injection as, "the biggest single local issue raised on the doorstep during the recent elections."

He said:"£30m is an enormous increase in funding. It will help boost this critical network and reinforce the county council's innovative maintenance programme, underpinning future prosperity and security for Staffordshire people.

"Staffordshire's highway team have rightly been praised over recent years for delivering real value for money. They have made year on year savings during a severe squeeze on budgets. But this has meant a managed decline in the condition of some of Staffordshire's roads. Those days are now over."

The first £5m will be invested before April next year, adding 50% extra to the £10m highway maintenance budget for the period.

And next year will see the budget double with £10m extra.
That breaks down in this year to:
• £3.3m on an extra 46 highway upgrade projects
• an extra £1m on patching and potholes action
• an extra £600,000 on pavements
• £300,000 more on drainage action

The programme was already committed to spending £9m on 65 highways improvement projects and £1.3m on 38 pavement projects.

Cabinet member for Highways Mike Maryon said the doubling of spend, kicked off half way through the year, had meant real pressure to deliver and warned against over expectation.

"This programme of extra investment in the Highways is like turning a super tanker around - it takes time to change course and the results will be seen over the long term.

"This is just the first bit hit. So if you don't see action near you now, there will be something in the pipeline in the years ahead.

"This extra money is much more than a belated drive to plug the potholes problem, It's about an carefully targeted investment in the future of network."

Full details will be published on the web about the programme in the next few weeks.
Page Last Modified: 25/08/2009 09:25:15

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