At tonight's Growth and Prosperity Scrutiny Panel of Salford City Council, a discussion on the Highways Investment Programme for 2019/20 revealed that road defects in the city are set to double.
"There will be a deterioration in the quality of the highways" said Planning Lead Member, Councillor Antrobus, adding that the investment budget had been cut almost in half.
For this financial year, £3.8million had been requested from the Council but only £2million has been provided.
"We'll be going back to 2010 levels if the funding remains the same" said Shoaib Mohammad, Head of Highways and Infrastructure "There were 17,000 defects in 2010/11, 8,000 defects now and if we continue with this funding within three years the roads will be back to 2010/11 condition."
The report to the Scrutiny Panel states that "Since it's commencement in 2009/10, the Network Recovery Plan has seen an improvement in overall carriageway and footway condition, across all classifications of the adopted highway network", and the accompanying table bears this out...
In 2010/11, 9.3% of Salford's roads, or carriageways, were classed as red (ie knackered). This dropped to 4.8% classed as red in 2017/18 and 6% in 2018/19. By 2020/21 it's estimated that there will be 10.1% of red classed roads, actually higher than in 2010/11.
In 2010/11, 10.5% of roads were classed as amber (not so knackered). In 2014/15 this had dropped to 5% but as the cuts have kicked in, the roads with an amber alert rose to 11.7% in 2017/18 and 13% in 2018/19. By 2020/21 this is forecast to rise to 15.1%, way higher than in 2010/11.
Meanwhile, the percentage of good, or green, roads is set to drop from 53.8% in 2018/19 to 49.6% by 2020/21.
Footways, or pedestrian paths, don't fare much better, with the percentage of red classed footways set to increase from 2% in 2013/14 to 4.4% by 2020/21.
Councillor Sharpe pointed out that residents are asking why money is found for cycle lanes and extra roads but not for highways and footways. Councillor Antrobus responded that more investment in cycle lanes would lead to a 'modal shift' away from roads. However, Councillor Sharpe retorted that with population increase this didn't hold.
Councillor Jolley questioned Urban Vision's profits within the highways budget, which included Depot Profits of £138,000, and Depot Overheads of over £250,000... "It's a contractual arrangement with Urban Vision which we can't get out of" came the sheepish reply.
Also in the budget are Urban Vision's Design Fees of £47,951 and £43,385..."For asphalt?" asked Councillor Jolley.
Next year, Urban Vision is set to be taken back in house by Salford Council but in the meantime it is, as always, milking the Council's budgets for profits which could be better spent actually fixing potholes and the like...
For a back ground see previous Salford Star article on Urban Vision click here
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