In a freedom of information response Wakefield Council admit that the bill to put the district’s roads into proper order will be £68 million pounds. If they had acted in 2007/8, they estimated it would have cost half this amount. The shame of this is that the council uses a big part of its annual highways budget to pay a £1.4M insurance premium and settle legitimate claims made against it.
Meanwhile, they are spending £4.1M to fund the Northern Relief Road, which some already label a “road to nowhere”. When less than £2.7M a year goes on actual road improvements or repairs, that £4.1M could have been better spent fix the roads..
The government is allocating further specific funds to help out, but our roads are still in an appalling state, due to years of lack of commitment and council inaction. I wonder what the repair bill will be in 2018?
It is really time to fix the roads!.
No comments:
Post a Comment