£30m to be spent on road repairs (From Gazette & Herald)

£30m to be spent on road repairs

10:34am Wednesday 20th March 2013 in News

RYEDALE’S roads are to benefit from a £3 million programme of highway improvements to repair damage caused by severe flooding and hard frosts.

North Yorkshire County Council is using £2 million from its reserves in the financial year starting in April, plus a further £857,000 for drainage issues, said County Coun Gareth Dadd, executive member for highways and planning.

In total £30.5 million has been allocated for the county’s 5,000 miles of roads in 2013-14, with £30.7 million to be spent the following year.

Council leader County Coun John Weighell said the £857,000 being spent on tackling drainage issues was on top of a £723,000 programme already agreed.

“North Yorkshire suffered severely during the floods of last autumn and winter. This is our attempt to ensure the damage caused to our road network is put right and that we are well placed in the event of future incidents of a similar kind.”

He said the council will prioritise the programme on a “worst-first” basis and intends to begin tackling the most serious problems immediately.

The extra money being allocated to drainage work has been made available by the Government in response to lobbying by the county council and local MPs over the disparity between funding for urban and rural authorities in the latest Government settlements.