North Somerset Council to spend £9 million on roadworks

Cash-strapped North Somerset Council wants to spend more than £9 million on roadworks during the next two years.

Consecutive harsh winters coupled with one of the wettest years on record have had a severe impact on roads and added to their deterioration, as well putting pressure on maintenance budgets.

In response to this a number of schemes have been deferred to make an additional £218,000 available for use in road maintenance.

The council is committed to investing in its roads and in 2013-14 it will spend a total of £6.6m on road maintenance and improvements, £1.9m more than it did in this financial year.

It has outlined is spending plans for road improvement, maintenance and transport schemes as part of the Local Transport Plan.

The Local Transport Plan (LTP) implementation programme includes schemes for capital works as well as those identified to improve highway safety, safer routes to school, public transport, pedestrian and cycling links and to relieve traffic congestion.

The LTP funding adds-up to £4.41m for 2013-14 and £4.63m for 2014-15.

The programme is for three years, although the funding allocation for 2015-16 has still to be identified.

The Department for Transport announced in its autumn statement there would be £615,000 additional funding for the 2013-14 programme and £329,000 in 2014-15.

Other funding for road improvements will be available from other sources such as developer contributions.

To read the full LTP programme click HERE.

North Somerset Council set its budget in February for 2013-14 of £158.427 million, which includes cuts of £9.7 million and the loss of more than 300 jobs and support for its youth centres.