Cash pledge for local roads (From Free Press Series)

Cash pledge for local roads

AN extra £250,000 is to be spent this year on improvements to rural roads in Monmouthshire.

The extra money has been allocated by Monmouthshire County Council specifically to deal with the mounting problem of the state of the county's rural roads. It is in addition to the £1.661m budget for minor works.

The highways team were thanked at the Bryn y Cwm area committee by Cllr Bob Wilcox of Grosmont. He said: "They should be congratulated because they do not have a great budget, and personally I think they do a good job.

"A bridge in my ward collapsed and the department carried out repairs which cost £80,000 instead of the £350,000 originally estimated."

David Harris, head of highways said the council is responsible for 1,600 kilometres of roadways and they manage to repair just one per cent every year. This gives them the problem of what to leave off the list, otherwise it would be ten times longer.

He added: "We are happy to have the additional £250,000, but our financial situation is still not very good."

He said they were currently dealing with a structural problem at the viaduct in Gilwern which carries the road to Crickhowell, and this will cost £50,000 to complete phase one.

"There is a problem with the deck of the viaduct which was built in the 1930s and has done very well with very little maintenance."

Mr Harris presented the highways maintenance works programme for the Bryn y Cwm area and said it contains a big investment in safety fencing because so much had rotted away and needs replacing.

He said £50,000 had been cut from the £200,000 budget for replacing defective street lighting columns because of cutbacks, and only £30,000 will be spent on traffic calming schemes instead of £153,750.