Cambridgeshire County Council has pledged to fund improvements to footpaths and roads as it passed its annual budget this week.

The council voted through a £660.3million budget for the 2021-22 financial year on Tuesday (February 9), an increase of around £47.3million – or 7.7 per cent – compared to last year’s budget.

This includes £20 million extra for footpath maintenance with half on surface treatments, such as footway repairs, and the other half on deeper treatments, such as resurfacing and reconstruction. This is in addition to the current £1.3million annual budget for footpath maintenance.

There is also £2.73million extra in measures to prevent flooding and improve local biodiversity, including rapid gully clearing at all known risk sites, better verge maintenance on rural roads avoiding peak flowering times and an urban verge ‘cut and collect’ trial, plus initiatives to provide both active and practical support for local communities to address flooding

Approximatley £6.97million will be provided to reconstruct the B1050 Shelfords Road at Willingham. The council said this road had been a longstanding concern for a number of years. A busy route crossing the River Ouse, it is the main commuter route from the Fens towards Cambridge and the A14. While ‘significant work’ has been undertaken to keep it serviceable, the council said ‘historic construction destabilised by poor ground conditions’ means full reconstruction is needed to prevent its eventual closure.