Wiltshire Council - "extra £1million for county's roads"

[Lee]

From Wiltshire Council:

extra £1million for county's roads

A further £1 million is to be pumped into repairing Wiltshire's roads which have been badly affected by the severe winter weather.

The council had already agreed to increase spending on the county's roads by £650,000 in the budget for 2010/11 but has now allocated a further £1 million.

Council leader Jane Scott said: "It has been really difficult to find this extra money but we believe roads are a priority, so I’m pleased that we have been able to release this funding. The weather over the last two winters has been unusually bad and has caused severe damage to our roads."

Dick Tonge, cabinet member for highways, added: "With the improvements in the weather and this extra cash we can use our new equipment more effectively. The velocity repairer can fill and seal about 200 square metres of road defects each day as compared with the 18 square metres using conventional equipment. We intend to deploy a third unit which will significantly increase the repairs we can carry out."

[Lee]

From Wiltshire Council:

£1.4m for Wiltshire road repairs

An extra £1.46m will be spent on repairing Wiltshire's roads after the Government awarded local authorities more money.

Wiltshire Council is being given an extra £1.46m to contribute towards repairing the damage following the extreme winter weather.

The letter from the Government says the funding 'is exceptional due to the most prolonged period of severe winter weather for 30 years'. It is also made clear councils should not presume the Government will be able to assist should there be severe winters in future.

Dick Tonge, cabinet member for highways, said: "This money is most welcome and will enable us to resurface more roads than we had anticipated. Officers are currently assessing how and where this money will be spent.

"The council had already allocated an additional £1.65m in the budget for winter repairs, this Government money will give us more than £3m extra to recover from the problems caused by winter.

He added: "I am very concerned that when the new Government starts to squeeze the budgets highways will be seen as a easy hit. We are investing in new equipment and new ideas so we become much more efficient. By doing this we can compensate for the inevitable reduction in the Government monies allocated to Wiltshire for highway repairs as they attempt to balance the nation’s books."