Funding for Highways in RBWM
Residents would like to see all our roads in better condition and they become the subject of many promises by those standing for election. It’s a very emotive subject as most of us use the roads and so are impacted by the general state of repair. The reality is, any power to influence is limited and is very much determined by the budget. The budget at the moment is very tight mainly due to previous overspending and mismanagement and any increase to the funds for highways would mean a cut in another area or an increase in council tax.
Funding for highways in RBWM comes from three sources.
- The capital budget where around £2m a year is put aside to repair our highways and pavements.
- The second source is CIL monies received from housing developers and used to improve the infrastructure.
- The third source is government grants which councils need to apply for and if successful they then have a budget for a specific project, with a level of flexibility built in to change its use if necessary.
For example, the work up at Castle Hill was mostly funded by a grant from the Local Enterprise Partnership and the new cyclops roundabout at Mill Lane will be funded from the grant monies provided to turn the whole of West Windsor into a Low Traffic Neighbourhood, which thankfully didn’t happen thanks to resistance from residents.
The process of determining which roads need to be resurfaced and to what degree is based on highway surveys, conducted by highways officers who travel the borough and inspect our roads and pavements. Those at the top of the list are done first and if officers find extra budget, other roads can then be worked on. This is why some roads get attention every few years and for others it might be 20 years or more before work can happen. For example St Andrew’s Crescent and Avenue in Dedworth. One was resurfaced while the lesser used cul-de-sac had some minor repairs done to make it smoother.
Candidates making promises about fixing this and that in many ways is wishful thinking as the process is in place and for the most part it works within the existing constraints.
Residents can help their elected councillors by forwarding suggestions around infrastructure features they may have seen used elsewhere, both UK and abroad, and as funding becomes available for trying out innovative ideas and technological advances, officers could potentially put in a bid. Cllrs are always talking to officers and in forwarding your ideas you could potentially influence the future of RBWM’s infrastructure.
Thank you.
Jon Davey
My son who works in architecture recently said that he couldn’t understand why councils let developers/builders get away with damaging the roads around development sites without forcing them to reinstate the damage at the end of the job. He said that is it crazy that new properties can be sold on swanky developments at hugely inflated prices and the roads leading to them are trashed by the heavy vehicles used in the building process…..
Just a thought.
There is no mention of private developers or council members saying about over weighted lorrys getting to sites ascot high st 38 tonnes lorrys keep coming through ascot high st i think its weight limit is 17 tons windsor road ascot the same dedworth Road the same many years ago dedworth Road and all the other roads had weight limits put on them for what because surprise surprise they were damaging the roads wasn’t their a big row in Parliament where the council tried to get extra money out of the government for repairs to pot holes.
What I don’t understand is why a project like Castle Hill that seems purely aesthetic and will benefit the few, gets priority over repairs to pot-holes so desperately needed on so many roads in the Borough that would benefit many residents and improve safety on routes to our local services.
Understandable… thing is they come out of different budgets… the Castle Hill comes from applying for grants where is sort of match funded, in this case the Gov put up most of the money for this project
In my experience as an ex local Authority chief officer (Mainly within highways). The highways budget has always been the easiest one to cut. The results of cuts often take a few years to become noticeable. As opposed to cuts in the refuse collection budget that would become immediately apparent.
My beef is that whilst it is accepted that our roads are in poor condition and budgets are smaller. We are wasting money sending blokes out with bags of Emcol or temporary tarmac to bung it in a pothole, hit it with a punner then bugger off thinking jobs a good’n. These repairs in some cases only last days and in some cases, Whiteley and Burnetts Road in particular, only hours. I’ve lived in Whiteley over 30 years. The footway has never been repaired and in the carriageway the Council are still filling the same potholes. If the engineers came and inspected some of them they would be able to see that the base course has failed in many. The areas need to be cut out, properly based up and then a wearing course applied.
In summer in Whiteley there are more weeds growing in the road than there are in my garden.
I thought I saw a van putting tarmac on Testwood Road the other day… drove past a few days later, no sign of any tarmac! Time for a review after the elections…