Boroughs to seek funding for weathered roads

12 June 2009

London’s highway authorities are poised to make a bid for emergency funding for maintenance of the capital’s roads following the severe weather conditions in February.

Department for Transport (DfT) officials have advised that there will be no specific invitation for bids and any applications should be made under the guidance provided in 2007, following the flooding damage in the summer of that year.

The London Technical Advisers Group is co-ordinating a potential capital-wide bid for additional funding, if there is evidence that the costs of necessary works exceeds 15% of councils’ annual capital allocations.

Authorities such as Devon County Council have already had to identify additional resources in order to carry out immediate repairs to deal with defects caused by freeze-thaw conditions (Surveyor, 30 April).

Matthew Lugg, chair of the UK Roads Board, said while the repair bills were not of the same order as those faced by some in 2007, there ‘may be a case for additional funding in some instances’.

He said: ‘It was the worst winter for 20 years. Inevitably there’s been more damage to carriageways caused by the freeze-thaw cycle, and consequently there’ll be a need for extra expenditure.’

The problem, however, he said, was that any funding provided by the DfT would be top-sliced from the overall capital budget for local highway authorities, and so would impact on future maintenance allocations.

The DfT has said that any bids for additional funding need to be submitted by July if they are to be considered.

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