DfT agrees to review ‘crude’ formula for distributing funds

11 January 2007
 
Highways officials have welcomed the Government’s plan to consider refreshing the ‘crude’ formula for how it distributes capital funding for maintenance between councils.
The Department for Transport announced in the local transport plan settlement that it would set up a working group ‘to review the arrangements for funding primary route bridge strengthening and major maintenance, and consider refreshing the maintenance formula’.
It aims to announce any changes by the spring, to allow a three-year allocation to be made next December.
Matthew Lugg, chair of the County Surveyors’ Society engineering committee, welcomed the move, and hoped for an end to the ‘crazy’ situation where authorities with the roads in the worst state were rewarded.
‘At present, the way maintenance money is distributed is much too crude. ‘We need a better way of deciding where money is best invested, one that doesn’t penalise high-performers.’
Some councils which had managed their repair backlogs well had their 2007/08 funding cut (see p4), which went against the drive to incentivise performance, as with the integrated transport block.
Lester Wilmington, of Devon County Council, chair of the CSS highways management committee, hoped that there would be greater transparency.
‘Nobody knows how the DfT’s allocated the money this year. It says it has placed each road network into one of four bands. How? And why?’
Others, such as Essex, want needs on the ground to be better reflected. Tony Ciaburro, Essex’s head of highways and transportation, said that simply looking at ‘traffic volume’ meant the county’s high number of HGVs was not recognised.
Simply looking at road length ignored the susceptibility of its roads to drought damage, he said.

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