Doncaster Council has committed a further £6 million to improve its road network but the maintenance backlog now stands well over £100 million.
Mayor Ros Jones has allocated £6 million to the capital programme which includes £1 million for road safety. The total council budget for this area is said to stand at around £200,000 a year, according to the Doncaster Free Press.
Road safety measures could include anything from new signs to speed bumps in neighbourhood estates, other traffic calming measures and a variety of pedestrian crossings.
While welcoming the allocation calling it a ‘brave’ proposal, Coun Joe Blackham, cabinet member for highways, said to bring all the road network up to best standards, it would cost the council around £150 million to address the maintenance backlog.
He added that the £6 million is £1 million more than the council receives in the Revenue Support Grant given to DMBC each year by central government.
Coun Blackham also said it has largely not altered since 2010 and it demonstrated a real-terms cut in funding from Whitehall.
Coun Blackham said: “I’d like to commend the highways contribution that the mayor, quite bravely, has put into this budget proposal.
“This is an additional six million pounds – that’s a one million more than the Revenue Support Grant gives to Doncaster – £5 million a year which has remained broadly unchanged since 2010.
“What we’ve seen is a depreciation value in relation to that in real terms. It’s a brave decision in the financial situation we’re finding ourselves in to actually add a further £6 million in the capital programme.
“It won’t address all the issues, the issue we’ve got in Doncaster is a £150 million backlog in terms of highways maintenance.
“But this will make an impression and begin to address the issues and that if we just use the £5 million that government has given us, it will make a bigger difference all together.
“The £6 million is split between £5 million on the highways network and a further million pounds for road safety improvements. The current budget for road safety improvements is £200,000 a year.
“This is a significant increase – it won’t go all the way to tackle all the issues but it will go some way in resolving them.”
