A local councillor in has called for more money to be made available to repair Flintshire’s roads.
Deputy council leader Carolyn Thomas urged her colleagues to consider increasing the authority’s own allocation to nearer £1m. According to Deeside.com, she told a virtual cabinet meeting: “I am hoping that they (Welsh Government) will continue to fund highway repairs and maintenance and have been in touch yesterday with the leader of the Welsh Local Government Association. I know he is pressing for funding and we are hoping for more funding this year, but it is hugely important to all our residents that we do keep investing and we get rid of these potholes.
“I’d like to increase the amount as we’ve got it here as £600,000 when we need £2.7m a year to maintain them at their current state.”
Flintshire Council has set aside £600,000 to invest in highways during the next financial year. A Welsh Government fund of £60m has also been helping local authorities across Wales to keep roads in their area up to scratch over the last three years.
The annual cost of maintaining the county’s road surfaces in their current state is approximately £2.7m.
The cabinet member for streetscene and countryside added: “We have invested significantly recently thanks to the extra money, but we don’t know if we’re getting it next year and I’d like to increase that level just in case. We’ve got a huge list of roads that need investing in all the time and when we look at the plan for this year, there’s always extra that we can’t fit in.”
The council has explored a number of solutions to tackle potholes in the county. In January, recycled plastic was used to resurface a road in Connah’s Quay as part of an innovative trial, which was also designed to find a way to reuse items collected from residents’ bins which are difficult to recycle.
In response to Cllr Thomas’s request to increase funding for repairs, the authority’s chief executive Colin Everett said: “The best we can commit is we will look at what’s possible with flexibility. We are going to be heavily reliant on Welsh Government and they’ve got to make room for transport and road funding. If we can keep that under review, as we really understand that it’s a relatively low investment.”
Cabinet members agreed to the £600,000 allocated for road repairs in its capital programme for next year, whilst asking the chief executive to explore options to provide more money if possible.
