Devon County Council has agreed to put up council tax by 5%, including a 1% increase to support a ‘one-off’ sum of £6.5m for highway maintenance.
In addition to the dedicated increase in council tax, the council agreed a 1.99% rise for general services and 2% for adult social care, resulting in an overall council tax increase of 4.99%.
The 1% extra for roads will bring nearly £5m, In addition, a £1.5m increase in the county’s share of the Rural Services Delivery Grant, which will also be spent on roads, will mean that an extra £6.5m will be spent on patching, drainage, potholes and other road maintenance work.
Deputy leader of the John Clatworthy said Devon residents were disadvantaged on both revenue and capital funding, receiving £161 per person less government funding than their urban counterparts.
He said: ‘When it comes to capital funding for transport infrastructure, the South West is the second lowest funded in the country and for every £100 spent in the South East, the South West region receives £7.50. We urgently need resources allocated for rail and road infrastructure.’
Separately, Staffordshire County Council has announced an extra £5m to tackle potholes for a second year running.
The cash will see four ‘pothole zapping’ velocity patching machines working alongside traditional crews to tackle more potholes, carry out wider hotspot patching where there are a number of defects, and work on preventative measures such as surface dressing. Helen Fisher, cabinet support member for highways and transport said it would help the council fix more category one and two potholes than ever before.
She said: ‘We have a huge rural network, stretching out more than 6,400km, and maintaining it is a huge undertaking, especially after the winter months, where defects start to show. Good roads are really important to residents and business, not just getting people from A to B, but in growing the economy and linking people to jobs, education and community facilities.
‘Last year we managed to fix more than 35,000 potholes as result of an extra £5m investment into the county’s roads, meaning more than 2,500 defects were being repaired on average every month. This new investment will help us continue this work and keep the county moving.
‘We will continue to prioritise repairs based on the risk they pose, but it is important to remember that fresh potholes occur daily and we need to manage both the repairs of these and the expectations of what can be delivered with the budgets we have available.’
The new cash will see:
- Four velocity patching machines – working on fixing potholes, surface dressing and routine maintenance. These 18-tonne machines help speed up repairs by blowing debris, priming the road and filling and setting the pothole
- Multihog all-purpose machine – with multi attachments, allowing it to carry out a range of highways functions from road planning to weed killing to ploughing snow in the winter
- Onsite road surface manufacturing machine – to deliver better results by preparing hot road surfacing material as it is needed
- Work on preventative surface dressing measures
