£1.5m plan to repair 150 Shropshire roads
Thursday 29th July 2010, 11:39AM BST.
More than 150 Shropshire roads most in need of repair after the severe winter weather led to more potholes will be resurfaced in the next eight months as part of a £1.5m scheme.
Shropshire Councillor Martin Taylor-Smith, cabinet member for strategic planning and transport, said they had been given Central Government money in a one-off payment following the hard winter.
He said: “We’ve identified the top 160 roads in the county and we are repairing those.”
Roads will be repaired at locations including Shrewsbury, Ludlow, Wem, Whitchurch, Market Drayton, Oswestry and Gobowen.
The cost of projects so far ranges from £100,000 on the B4386 Horton Lane in Shrewsbury to £4,000 for work on Holly Close in Market Drayton.
A report on the roads prepared by council staff for the council’s scrutiny committee said anecdotal local assessments showed about three to four times more funding could have been used, but the £1.5m had been gratefully received and they had focused on identifying what roads were a priority.
Councillor Taylor-Smith added: “We took the roads that keep being patched the most. It actually works out cheaper in the long term to skim the road and surface them properly.”
Shropshire Council used a record amount of grit, more than 15,000 tonnes, to cope with the conditions.
Councillor Taylor-Smith said: “It had a major impact on the roads. One of the downsides of using grit is that it deteriorates the road surface.”
He said the plan was to get most of the work done before the next financial year.
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August is almost upon us, winter finished 5 months ago, why are Shorpshire residnets still waiting for roads to be repaired after a colder winter than we have usually had. What have Shropshire Council been doing in that time, too much talking and not enough action.
I was on holiday if France a few weeks ago, talking to the locals, in the area I was staying they had a very cold winter if not colder than ours, 2 ft of snow and temps down to 18C. The roads in the area suffered as a result, however the local authority quickly got to resurface the roads (no just patch) roads from main to rural roads were all repaired by early April and it was a pleasure to drive on smooth surfaces not having to continually look out for holes.
If the French can do it why not Shropshire Council.
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My father in law has just returned from a motoring holiday in France. He paid almost £100 in road tolls just for that one holiday. At that price you would expect the roads to be in tip top condition. Our annual road tax is paltry by comparison.
The problem is with a lot of people in this country is that we expect the same level of services as enjoyed by our european counterparts, but without having to pay the same level of taxation.
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The Toll Motorways in France are privately owned, the tolls they get do go to maintain the roads in tip top condition. Yes they are a pleasure to drive, but you are not complelled to use them.
The roads I was refering to and comparing are those owned by the state, be that national or locally.
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Do you mean just the hole are going to be filled in ? It will last 3 days then more hole will appear making the road more dangerous.
I will be like feeding an elephant with a cream bun ..
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it certainly needs it!
i dont mind this kind of public spending its good, its the wasteful public art and well paid managerial, clerical and “policy” and arts jobs which i object to
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about time too we pay enough tax for roads
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Emma,
Since 1937 there has been no direct relationship between road tax and road expenditure, the majority of the Vehicle Excise Duty does not go towards spending on roads, but into HM Treasury’s coffers.
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You’re right, so many people are blissfully unaware of this fact. We don’t pay Road Tax. Vehicle owners pay VED which, like all other taxes, goes some way to paying for the damage they do to the roads, the environment and other people. 26,096 people were killed or seriously injured in 2009. That’s a lot of hospital resources!
Inadequate maintenance goes hand in hand with modern levels of traffic on roads that weren’t built to cope with it.
Oh dear, I see poor old ‘Sid Vicious’ is living in a dreamworld.
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“26,096 people were killed or seriously injured in 2009. That’s a lot of hospital resources!”
Yes and I wonder how many of these were down to or partly to blame from poorly maintained roads?
Britains roads are seriously undermanaged, we waste far too much money on needless traffic management schemes such as traffic lights and calming and nowhere near enough on maintenence, but office bound highways officials wouldn’t know that, would they?
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“You’re right, so many people are blissfully unaware of this fact. We don’t pay Road Tax. Vehicle owners pay VED which, like all other taxes, goes some way to paying for the damage they do to the roads, the environment and other people. 26,096 people were killed or seriously injured in 2009. That’s a lot of hospital resources!
Inadequate maintenance goes hand in hand with modern levels of traffic on roads that weren’t built to cope with it.”
Wrong, VED doesn’t just go “some way” to paying for the damage caused by vehicles using the roads…it goes way past the budget being spent on todays roads and your argument that there are more cars today than there used to be, holds no water…more cars means MORE road tax (VED) which should be sufficient to repair the roads if it was sufficient to do so in the days when there was less traffic and less tax being collected from the motorist.
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good , i wont say it often but well done to the council for doing this, they spend millions on wasteful stuff, this is good
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