Surrey will receive a £1.5m share of the £100m “national pothole fund” announced by Alasdair Darling in the Budget, it has been revealed.
The funding will add to the extra money set aside by Surrey County Council earlier in the year to help deal with the effect of the freezing weather on local roads, but based on an estimate that it will cost £200m to get Surrey’s roads up to scratch, the funding will not go far.
Meanwhile, work is ongoing or due on a number of local roads:
- The long awaited resurfacing of Carlton Road is due to take place during the summer holidays, to avoid causing conflicts with traffic to St Bede’s school. In the meantime Redhill’s councillors have been requested temporary patching of the numerous significant potholes which have appeared.
- Daneshill is still subject to ongoing gas works, after which the local water company is due to undertake works. Once these are complete it is scheduled for a full carriageway reconstruction, which has long been an objective of local residents and councillors.
- Serious potholes in Linkfield Lane have been reported by many local residents, and the local councillors have been pressing the County Council for these to be patched. Some patching work has been undertaken and more is due to happen.
- The lower section of Batts Hill is due for inspection and patching will hopefully result, after requests from local councillors.
A large part of the overall problem for Surrey is that its roads are so heavily used – for example Surrey’s A-roads carry an average of 22,000 vehicles per day, which is twice the national average. This has not been allowed for in the sharing out of the “national pothole fund”, therefore areas with much quieter roads in better condition have received the same amount per mile of road as Surrey.
Further research also suggests that Surrey residents pay 50 times more in car tax, fuel duty and other road taxes and charges than Surrey receives back for road maintenance – around £700m is paid over, and £14m received in return.
Cllr Dr Lynne Hack, County Councillor for Redhill, commented:
“It has long been suspected that Surrey gets a rough deal in terms of government funding, not only for roads but for all services. As a prosperous county we expect to pay a bit more in to the national pot than we get out, but these figures show just how skewed the system is against Surrey’s residents.
“We will keep pressing for fairer funding for Surrey and if the Conservatives are elected at the General Election they have promised to set up an independent body to review the fairness of funding from central government to local Councils and remove it from political influence.”
Surrey County Council is also making progress with its retendering of the road maintenance contract (announced here), which will put greater pressure on roads contractors to provide better value for money and undertake works in a more cost effective way, for example filling all potholes in a road in one go.
As highlighted in an earlier article, you can now report potholes using your iPhone, or through the SCC website.
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