Almost £100 million is set to be spent improving and repairing Northumberland’s road network over the next three years.
The council’s cabinet approved the spend as part of the new local transport plan on Tuesday.
The plan, which covers a three year period for the first time, includes a spent of £38 million over the next 12 months and an additional £32 million for the next two years after that. The council maintains a vast highways network, with over 3,000 miles of roads criss-crossing the county.
Speaking at Tuesday’s cabinet meeting, portfolio holder for highways Coun Mark Mather said: “Our highways network is valued at over £5.5 billion – it is the largest asset that the council is responsible for.
“Ensuring we have a safe, reliable highway network is fundamental to the economic success and social well-being of the county. We want to ensure it is managed effectively and efficiently.
“This is the first local transport plan to cover a three-year period. This new strategic approach will deliver a range of benefits, allowing more effective programming of works and improving operational performance.”
The coming year’s programme will see over £28m spent on roads, £4m spent on repairing landslips and improving bridges and other structures, as well as almost £2.5m on new safety schemes and £1.9m on maintenance of footways, cycleways and the public rights of way network.
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Speaking after the meeting, Coun Mather added: “We’re spending more than ever on our road network as it’s an absolute priority for us and residents. The three-year-programme has been developed following a comprehensive review of road safety issues, potential improvement schemes and future maintenance costs.
“We’ve also worked closely with our County and Town and Parish Councillors to understand local priorities, as well as considering requests and issues raised by the public, which are then all assessed against a range of technical criteria, to develop a programme which benefits all areas of Northumberland.”
Council leader Glen Sanderson said: “I’m really pleased we’re bringing all of this money into our roads. Lets hope we don’t get any more foul weather.”
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