Dorset Council will be able to carry out more resurfacing and reconstruction work on its roads this year, thanks to a £9.1m injection from the Department for Transport (DfT).
The Secretary of State for Transport has announced a £1.7billion Transport Infrastructure Investment Fund to be allocated to Combined Authorities and Local Highway Authorities for 2020/21.
The fund will improve journeys for cyclists, pedestrians and drivers across England through repairs to local roads and will seek to lock-in environmental benefits seen during COVID-19.
Councillor Ray Bryan, Portfolio Holder for Highways, Travel and Environment, said:
“This is a much welcomed, significant boost to our highways funding.
“As always, there are caveats as to what we can spend this money on, but we are hoping to accelerate our current programme of roads resurfacing and improvement works.
“Highways teams are currently assessing sites that would benefit from resurfacing as well as drainage improvement schemes and stability works between Wimborne and Cranborne.
“We welcome government funding for specific areas of the council’s work like this. However, I must remind residents that the council’s overall financial position remains challenging due to the significant additional expenditure and loss of income incurred through our COVID response.”
This additional money raises the total capital funding received from the Department for Transport for Dorset Highways to £23,848,000, and includes:
Confirmed 2020/21 annual allocation £10,564,000
Incentivised element (Band 3 awarded) £2,201,000
Improvements funding £1,971,000
Transport Infrastructure Investment Fund £9,112,000
Programmes of work and further information will be published as it becomes available.
Please could you consider work on my road. Apple Tree Grove Ferndown BH22 9LA. The surface is very uneven and dangerous and has not been maintained for many many years. I have lived here since 1999 and never known resurfacing! Also Woodside Road is in terrible state.
I thought this money from central government was specifically allocated for the purposes of extending the cycle and walking network through our county and towns. I don’t see much evidence of that in the above text. During lock down many people have happily chosen to travel by foot, by bike and by other non motorised vehicles which should be both applauded and encouraged further, if not for healthy living grounds alone. Imagine how much spending on the NHS is saved when people are helped to adopt healthier lifestyle choices? Improving & extending environmentally sustainable transport policies such as improving the walk/cycle possibilities throughout our county demonstrates your support of Dorset residents and the different way people want to live their lives going forward. Building more roads is not the answer and repairing roads is what we pay for in our council tax. This is also a once in a life time opportunity to turn talk about tackling climate change into real, tangible action. Can someone please be more specific in describing what changes we will actually see with this extra money?
There is also Transforming Cities sustainable transport programme which will look at cycle and walking netwporks – information will be released shortly.
I’m hoping that some of this money will be allocated to thorough deep drain unblocking, repeatedly reported to council at Stoke Wake and is the main cause of road damage and unnecessary flooding. This is then temporarily patched and then considered to be sorted. If the root of the problem was sorted presumably it would save money in the long term.
I don’t quite understand why some local roads that appear to be fine condition are being repaved with tarmac – especially the A31 between Canford Bottom and Ferndown? Also my colleague tells me you’ve resurfaced a road out towards Ashington from Corfe Mullen, a dead end road? Why is the money not being spent on resurfacing roads that need it e.g. the road out to Gaunts Common south of Gaunts House which is really rough on a bike, along with other local very bumpy spots, or better still widening the A31 from the Ferndown police station to Merley (yes I appreciate this includes some bridge work over the river) which would make sense of the hamburger roundabout at Canford Bottom. No use making it dual carriageway through the roundabout when there is no increased capacity either side.
One change that would make a lot of difference for cyclists is the provision of a safe route for cyclists to cross the A35 at Football Ground roundabout from town side to Weymouth side on the A354 cycle track. The alternative route past the Weldmar Hospice is too narrow and has too many car drivers to make it safe.
It appears that my Local Area Technicians and DC Councillors do not meet to discuss the priority roads in their “patch” and have a comprehensive repair/resurface programme which is reviewed by them each year according to their area budgets and the current state of the roads. Residents always want their cul-de-sac or residential road to be a priority but work must be cascaded down from trunk roads to the little used, that way the road stock is put into good order in the shortest time. I expect my DC councillors to promote my area’s best interests both for roads and planning decisions but this is not always seem to be the case.