Over £37m will be spent on transport improvements across Northumberland over the next 12 months – from fixing potholes to improving infrastructure and creating safer roads.
The County Council’s annual Local Transport Plan (LTP) programme follows a comprehensive review of the maintenance of the Council’s road network, identified safety issues and potential improvements.
It also factors in requests for improvements and maintenance received from the local community via County Councillors and Town and Parish Councils throughout the county.
The largest part of the programme with an allocation of £17,505,624 is for maintenance of existing roads, including drainage, traffic lights and car park maintenance.
An allocation of £3,221,000 has been made for bridge maintenance – vital structures which connect many communities across the county. There is also an allocation of £972,000 for addressing landslips to enable stabilisation work to prevent the deterioration and potential loss of use of parts of the road network.
This year’s programme builds on more than £130m spent on maintaining and improving the county’s paths, highways and bridges since 2021.
Over the past year the Council has continued to invest in its workforce and the latest technology, including AI to assess road defects quicker and more efficiently, which has contributed to a year on year fall in pothole complaints.
Last summer’s surface dressing programme provided improved road surfaces to over 437,395 square metres of road on over 50 miles of the network.
And over the winter an extra £1m was set aside for extra ditch cleaning, channel sweeping and gully cleansing to cut the number of flooding issues on Northumberland’s roads caused by annual storms.
Teams have also trialled new road surfacing materials, including one made of recycled tyres, in a bid to create cheaper but longer lasting road repairs.
Councillor John Riddle, Cabinet Member for Improving Our Highways, said: “Delivering improved maintenance and investment in our roads, paths and cycleways is one of our top priorities.
“We’ve a dedicated team and a range of equipment to keep our network in the best condition possible, but it is a big job.
“We’ve over 3,000 miles of roads, many of which are subject to hugely changeable weather conditions and very exposed to the elements.
“That’s why we’re investing so heavily in this area. Our roads are in better condition but we need to keep this trend going. Aside from the major towns we’ve thousands of residents living in scattered communities who use of roads, paths and cycleways every day, and we’re determined to improve our network.”
Recent data published by the RAC showed Northumberland had the second lowest number of pothole insurance claims out of the 18 councils in the UK with the longest road networks – at 137. In comparison, Surrey, Hampshire and Lincolnshire saw 3,418, 2,654 and 1,771 claims made over the same period.
Recent benchmarking data also showed the County Council is among the highest performing local authorities in terms of the numbers of defects per kilometre of road network.
Cllr Riddle added: “The feedback from residents and councillors has been instrumental in our allocation of funds and there’s improvements and maintenance schemes planned in all corners of Northumberland over the next 12 months.”
PIC-NORTHUMBERLAND CC
