Fixing all of Surrey’s roads today would cost nearly £300 million, the county council has revealed.
The estimated £294m cost covers work ranging from full-scale reconstruction to overhauling broken stretches on around 1,300 miles of residential, rural and town centre roads.
This is on top of the 300 miles of roads being overhauled in the council’s Operation Horizon initiative, which come with a 10-year warranty.
The news came as the council repeated its call for Surrey to benefit from the new Roads Fund from Vehicle Excise Duty after the small print of the last Budget indicated it will only be spent on motorways and major A-roads managed by Highways England.
They cover just 100 miles in Surrey while the 3,300 miles of roads overseen by the council will not get extra funding despite the number of miles driven on them every year rising by 100 million since 2010.
John Furey, Surrey County Council’s cabinet member for highways, said: “While we’d love to wave a magic wand and make all our roads as smooth as Silverstone overnight, it’s just not possible.
“But given that the number of miles driven on our network has risen enormously and local drivers contribute £100m in Vehicle Excise Duty every year while only getting £20m back to invest in roads, it only seems right that they get a better deal.”
