Delivering Better Roads for you

As part of the spring Budget, the Government announced £100 million of additional funding to support the repair of the damage inflicted to the country's roads during the 2009/10 winter season. Herefordshire Council received £1,017,400 of this allocation and effectively matched that investment with an additional £1,000,000 of its own for highway maintenance.

Over the summer the council has delivered, through our partner Amey Herefordshire, the largest programme of highway maintenance works that Herefordshire has seen in recent years, the total value of that programme being approximately £11.7 million.

Councillor Brian Wilcox, Herefordshire Council's cabinet member for highways and transportation, said: "Our approach to recovering the condition of our roads has always been to direct as much funding as is possible towards works that provide a longer term solution to the underlying condition of our roads, as opposed to just filling potholes.

"We have and will continue to fill potholes, and we are committed to doing this quickly and effectively whenever these defects present an immediate or imminent hazard to road users. But as we all know pothole repairs, however good, are only really a 'sticking plaster' and full surfacing and surface treatments provide a proper repair and cost us less in the longer term. We are trying to fix the problem, as opposed to just patching it up.

"The details of these and other works in the highway have been posted on our 'Better Roads' webpage, which can be accessed from a button on the home page of our website and these details have been updated on at least a weekly frequency, all with the aim of keeping our customers informed as to what is going on, when it is happening and why.

"We hope that this facility has been of use and as a result of this and our advance signing and other publicity you have been able to plan your journeys better and avoid the congestion that can be a natural consequence of an extensive programme of highway works.

"Our programme of highway maintenance works is ongoing and will extend into next year. However, the bulk of our maintenance works have been arranged to take place during the longer days and better weather that the spring and summer months bring, so we thought that as we move through autumn into winter that this is an opportune time to update you on what we have achieved to date and on what our additional funding has actually delivered for you.

"As you travel around Herefordshire it is our hope that you, our customers, will recognise the extent of our efforts to deliver Better Roads and we hope that you have not experienced too much disruption as a result of these much needed works," he added.

To date we have carried out road resurfacing, extensive repairs and surface treatments at the sites listed in Table 1 in the Resources Box.

The extra funding provided by Government and the Council has enabled us to address the sites listed in Table 2 in the Resources Box.