Carmarthenshire counts the cost of oil-price rises

12 November 2009

Officers at Carmarthenshire Council have warned that increased oil and energy prices could negate the impact of a recent cash injection on its highways maintenance backlog.

The council’s asset and policy manager, Ainsley Williams, said an additional £7.725m had been made available for spending on the highway network since 2002.

‘While the number of defective roads may have remained static or increased slightly, the cost of undertaking repair work has risen significantly over the past couple of years due to the price of oil-derived materials and energy in general,’ he explained. ‘Therefore, it would be misleading to state the backlog has reduced by this amount, even though the condition survey work shows an improvement in terms of trend.’

Carmarthenshire’s last estimated backlog, from 2005, stood at £31m for carriageways and £3m for footways, which equated to £197 per resident.

In 2007-08, the Welsh Assembly Government estimated the county’s carriageways backlog at £19.5m, but Mr Williams said it had surveyed just 30% of minor roads.

‘Given that the C and unclassified roads make up about 83% of Carmarthenshire’s network, there is some scope for error in extrapolating data across the whole network,’ he added. Carmarthenshire also estimates a £9.5m backlog of highway lighting renewals, excluding cable network renewal.

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