Decision details

Cllr John Thomson presented a report which sought Cabinet approval of a programme of road maintenance to improve the condition of the highway network in Wiltshire. This was very much in keeping with one of the twelve actions in the Council’s Business Plan to ‘invest additional money between 2014-17 to reduce historic backlog in highways and maintenance.’

Expenditure on highways maintenance had varied enormously over the years. During the 1990s funding for road maintenance reduced nationally, and consequently a backlog of maintenance developed on the nation’s highway network.  Investment since 2000/01 had improved overall road conditions, but this had still not been sufficient to keep all of the roads and footways in good condition.

The Council acknowledged that the County’s roads was important to the public as demonstrated by the results of the Council’s People’s Voice and the National Highways and Transportation (NHT) surveys.

Cllr Thomson guided members through the report, a comparison of the  various options which ranged from maintaining existing conditions and increasing investment to £17 million and £21 million for six years and the financial implications of each option.  

The recommended option to increase investment to £21 million for six years would provide a significant improvement to the condition of the network, including improving the condition of the unclassified roads. It would also improve safety on the classified roads by improving 664 kilometres of road. There would be the opportunity to involve the Area Boards to help identify local priorities for treatment.

Resolved:

That Cabinet approve the following:

a)             To achieve the objective set out in the Council’s Business Plan a project for improving Wiltshire’s roads should be undertaken by increasing annual expenditure on road maintenance to £21.000 million for six years from 2014/15.

b)            The level of future funding from the Local Transport Plan Maintenance Block Capital Grant is a major risk in the proposed highways road maintenance investment.  Not until future year allocations are published will the true financial implications of investments be known.  It would be prudent to reassess the financial implications once these are known and during the annual budget setting process.

c)            The Area Boards should be involved in helping to set local priorities for roads to be treated, with the details of the process to be agreed by the appropriate Associate Director in consultation with Cllr Thomson, the Cabinet Member for Highways and Streetscene and Broadband.

Reason for decisions

The county’s roads are important to the public, as demonstrated by the results of the Council’s People’s Voice and the National Highways and Transportation (NHT) surveys, which indicate low levels of public satisfaction with road conditions. In the Council’s consultations on budget setting, expenditure on road maintenance is a service where the public consistently wish to see more spent.

The experience of other Authorities who have made substantial investments in highways maintenance recently is that improvements in the condition of the network are apparent, and public satisfaction is increased.

The proposed additional investment in the county’s roads would improve those roads in worst condition, especially the minor roads, and would improve road safety.

The project would provide the opportunity for the involvement of the Area Boards in identifying local priorities, which has not been possible previously because of the need to focus expenditure to treat identified safety issues.

A programme of publicity and branding of the project would make it clear to the travelling public, businesses and residents that Wiltshire is improving the condition of its roads.