Bucks County pledge extra £3m on local road repairs


The Conservative-run County Council has announced a one-off £3 million addition to this year’s £25m budget for road maintenance in Buckinghamshire.

Many people have voiced their concern over the state of Wycombe’s roads. This move by the County Council should start to improve matters. As a frequent road user in Wycombe and the wider Buckinghamshire area, both by car and on my motorcycle, I look forward to the prospective improvements.

While these additional funds will help to reduce the backlog of road maintenance across Bucks, a Council Motion was voted through by Conservatives calling for the Coalition to cancel its HS2 programme and instead use the funds to repair and upgrade existing infrastructure. This would allow new roads to be built where genuine need exists and to help relieve road congestion.

Council Leader, Conservative, Martin Tett said:

It’s very important that we are seen as a County Council to respond to what residents want. This is not just £3m, it is an extra £3m in addition to the £25m already committed in the budget for road surfacing over the next two years. And this is on top of the £11m we spend each year on basic repairs. Even with this extra money we don’t have enough resources to repair all of our roads so we call on the Government to capital fund a major upgrade.

In addition, the new Cabinet Member for Transport, Janet Blake said:

In direct response to concerns raised by our residents to all County Council members during the elections campaign, we want to help further reduce the roads maintenance backlog. Roads affect every single person in the county, so we need to enable safe and efficient travel. We also call on the Government to cancel HS2 to give us more funds for roads.

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Comments & Responses

One Response so far.

  1. Lee Morris says:

    The problem for me isn’t that the roads aren’t being repaired, it’s more that the materials they use don’t seem to do the job properly.

    Marlow Road between Lane End and Bolter End for example – the road has been fixed many times in the last few years, but you only have to give it a few weeks and the holes are back and even bigger.

    Rather than throwing more money at the problem and creating more temporary fixes, is there nothing that can be done to make the fixes more durable?