Budget will improve roads

9:35am Wednesday 7th May 2008

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AS part of this year's budget settlement, the Labour council has allocated an additional £1 million to the highways budget.

The biggest share - £850,000 - is to be allocated towards improving the condition of roads and footpaths in residential areas all across the borough.

And a total of £100,000 will be added to the urgent repairs budget.

This budget is for reactive minor repairs to roads, including potholes.

This additional £100,000 will help change the way the council carries out these repairs by ensuring more permanent repairs rather than temporary patching.

A total of £150,000 is to be used in schemes to help reduce environmental crime, such as ginnel gating and new street lighting.

This new money means that where we were originally planning to complete 75 individual schemes in residential areas this year, we are now able to complete an additional 35.

In the following years, the cumulative effect of this investment will mean that we can carry out a range of improvements in areas that we have not been able to prioritise in previous years.

However, I have to say that I am extremely disappointed that the Conservative group on Bolton Council actually voted against this extra money during the budget debate.

Cllr Nick Peel Executive member for Environmental Services