Cumbria’s roads will feel the benefit of millions of pounds of extra investment following today’s decision on Cumbria County Council’s budget for the financial year ahead (April 08 to April 09).
The budget, approved at the meeting of the full council in Kendal today (February 14th), contains a 14% additional investment of £2.7m into the council's £22.2m highways revenue budget. The increase for highways includes an extra £1.135 million for permanent road repairs. and provision for a further £1million a year to be spent introducing Highways Stewards around the county.
The brand new Highways Stewards service is set to change the way Cumbria’s road network is looked after.
The plan is have 24 stewards who are trained and equipped to tackle small but important repair and maintenance work on roads, gullies, road signs and verges etc. They will also be the ‘eyes and ears’ of the overall highways service, helping to identify larger jobs that need doing.
Each of the stewards will be responsible for a certain length of road and would work closely with their communities, parish councils and other authorities within their patch so they can respond to local demand.
Some £25.2m will also be spent on capital transport projects such as road engineering schemes to improve road safety, structural highways maintenance as well as integrated transport projects.
Ian Stewart, Cumbria County Council's cabinet member responsible for highways, said:
"This is a significant increase in the amount of money we are investing in Cumbria’s highway network and it shows how committed we are to improving the county’s roads.
"The £1million a year investment in the Highways Stewards will be a major step forward for the upkeep of the county’s roads and neighbourhoods. People tell us that they want us to pay more attention and spend more money making sure that small jobs in their areas are tackled more effectively –that is exactly what we are doing."
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