Lib Dems Call for Major Review of Road Repairs Contract (South East Cambridgeshire Liberal Democrats)

South East Cambridgeshire Liberal Democrats <info@secambslibdems.org.uk>

Lib Dems Call for Major Review of Road Repairs Contract

March 24, 2010 10:25 AM

Cambridgeshire Liberal Democrats have called for a major review of the county's road maintenance contract because they fear taxpayers may not be getting value for money.

They want a priority improvement programme to restore roads, footpaths and cyclepaths because they claim recent work has not addressed the long-term problems.

The Tory-run Cambridgeshire County Council is paying more and more money to the contractors to do less work, they claim.

Liberal Democrat leader, David Jenkins, will make the call for action in a motion to the full council meeting on March 30.

He said: "The road maintenance contract costs continue to increase but the amount of work being done is reducing. It is time we carried out a complete review of the road maintenance programme to see whether we are getting good value for taxpayers' money.

"Work carried out recently to repair roads, footpaths and cyclepaths has been only superficial and has not addressed the real long-term problems. More money is needed and the county council must look at alternative methods of funding."

Lib Dems' highways spokesman, Kilian Bourke said: "The Tories' repeated budget cuts have left our roads, pavements and cyclepaths neglected and in a disgraceful condition; some are positively dangerous.

"The council's own statistics show that the condition of every single type of road and footway has deteriorated in the last year, and the Tory cabinet has publicly admitted that proposed levels of funding will see them continue to decline.

"The severe winter we have just experienced has taken its toll and now we are left with potholes across the county. We have a duty of care to residents to make repairs as quickly and thoroughly as possible; a quick patching up job that comes out after six months is not good enough.

"Our alternative budget which the Tories rejected, would have remedied the situation by injecting £14m into basic highways services; in the absence of that funding, this review is urgently necessary."