Conservative councillors in Bath and North East Somerset have welcomed the announcement of an extra £2 million to improve local roads as ‘better late than never’.
As part of its budget plans for the forthcoming year, Bath and North East Somerset Council has earmarked an additional £2 million for road and pavement resurfacing and surface dressing. This is in addition to the standard Government grant of £3.8 million.
The proposed investment comes following two years’ of pressure from local Conservatives for the Council to do more tackle the area’s pothole problems.
During last year’s Council budget meeting Conservatives tabled a proposal for an extra £1 million to be invested in local roads, but was at the time defeated by Liberal Democrat and Labour councillors.
Conservatives have said that they welcome the Council’s ‘belated’ decision to treat road investment as a higher priority, but have warned that due to a backlog of maintenance issues more may still be needed in future to bring local roads up to an acceptable standard.
Conservative Group Leader Councillor Tim Warren said: “We welcome the fact that B&NES has finally recognised the deteriorating state of local roads and has realised the need to put extra funding into this area.
“It’s just a shame that Lib Dem and Labour councillors rejected our previous calls for more investment in improving road surfaces. As a result, there is now a backlog of repair work and more money is having to be spent than it otherwise would have done if the Council had listened earlier and agreed to a rolling programme of investment.
“Nonetheless, any action is better late than never, and hopefully this rather belated investment will help bring more of our roads up to a better standard.”
