Draft budget provides £15M extra to tackle Welsh repair backlog

25 October 2006

The Welsh Assembly Government has earmarked an extra £15M a year for local authorities to invest in road maintenance, in its draft budget for 2007/08.
Finance minister, Sue Essex, said the extra funding would enable local authorities to make ‘real progress’ in implementing a programme of work to tackle the backlog of repairs.
The announcement was welcomed by the Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA), which had called for an extra £20M a year for road maintenance.
‘We are very pleased with the recognition that road maintenance needed more funding,’ a spokesman told Surveyor. The money is expected to be used primarily to target potholes on Welsh highways, although it is yet to be decided where it will be distributed.
Announcing the draft budget, Essex said the assembly and its local authority partners had spent around £11.2M developing safe routes to schools since 2004/05. She also announced £1.5M in additional funding next year to support the operation of an hourly passenger service on the railway line between Ebbw Vale and Cardiff.
However, Councillor Derek Darlington, WLGA spokesman for finance, said local authorities still faced a number of challenges, particularly in waste management.

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Draft budget provides £15M extra to tackle Welsh repair backlog

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