Cornwall more than £20m ‘adrift’ in maintaining its road network
Concerns have been raised about the county's rural roads during a committee meeting
It has been revealed that Cornwall Council is £24m ‘adrift’ in maintaining its road network, with particular concern raised about the county’s rural roads.
A meeting of the authority’s sustainable growth scrutiny committee heard last week that Cornwall has been placed in the top quarter in a value for money review into its highway services, carried out by its arm’s-length company, Cormac.
Cornwall Council was placed fourth out of 37 local authorities who were assessed in the independent review by the Future Highways Research Group (FHRG). Its partnership with Cormac demonstrated strong value, underpinned by ‘one team’ governance, with road condition and delivery marked as ‘strong’, and a 45 per cent reduction in carbon since 2019.
While engagement with town and parish councils was good, the review found that the council could do more to improve public perception and satisfaction with the highways service. It was announced that a new Cornwall Highways website is being launched, which will include all planned roadworks and progress of work, and is hoped will help improve the public’s view of the service.
During discussion it became clear that not everything is rosy, with the council facing a £24m maintenance shortfall.
Cllr Mark Gibbons (Looe East & Deviock, Independent) said: “All in all, quite a positive report, but one question that comes from it is ‘asset condition is good but funding won’t sustain it’. Do we have an idea of what the funding gap is to maintain our current reasonable position?”
Cormac’s business director Andy James said that around £20 million is currently spent on road surface treatment. However, an independent assessment of Cormac’s treatment programme found that it should be £44 million, meaning the council / Cormac need to find an additional £24 million.
“That’s obviously concerning,” added Cllr Gibbons. “Though there are a lot of positives with this report, areas that need work include drainage asset conditions which are mirrored by the parish councils’ view. It’s all ‘drainage, drainage, drainage’. I think this winter we will see a lot more concern and issues as a result of it.”
Mr James said that keeping water out of the highway was the most important and fundamental thing that Cormac has to do. The company receives daily weather updates, which it acts upon, and has flood hotspots on various roads across the county, which are kept clear in advance of a weather event.
There are around 90,000 gulleys / drains across the road network in Cornwall, which are all mapped and emptied on a frequency basis, with higher risk gulleys checked more often.
“The rural network is probably the most concerning to me,” added Mr James, who said traditionally rural roads and ditches would be maintained three or four times a year. “We now do that once a year,” he said, stating there was a decline in maintaining rural highways.
“Water is the biggest enemy of the highway engineer. By default, water then sits on the carriageway more, doesn’t get into the ditches and you get more damage to the highway and a rate of deterioration you wouldn’t otherwise get.”
Cllr Gibbons responded: “Decline of rural maintenance is obvious to anybody. It is a concern because it does seem particularly short-sighted. The costs are just going to increase if we allow a decline to continue. There has to be some budget factored into this in terms of protecting our rural highway network, preventively and proactively.”
The shortfall has been reported despite Cornwall Council being awarded almost £286 million by the Government earlier this year to deliver a programme of transport and road improvements across the Duchy over the next four years.
Committee chairman Cllr Connor Donnithorne (Redruth Central, Carharrack & St Day, Conservative) said the report demonstrated that Cornwall Council / Cormac is at the top of the chart “where you’d want to be in terms of value for money”.
“Whilst that’s good, what perhaps is not good is that there are some people in this authority who say ‘well Cornwall had got a great road network and we are much better than other parts of the country’. When we hear there’s potentially a £24m deficit in what we need to spend to maintain the road network as is, that’s not making it gold standard.”
He asked the cabinet member for transport: “Where’s the money coming from, Dan?”
Cllr Dan Rogerson (Bodmin St Mary’s & St Leonard, Liberal Democrat) responded: “In the work of the budget overview and scrutiny committee, if they have any places they can find extra money, I’d be very happy to receive it.
“In terms of value for money and condition, Cornwall scores pretty well, but we are more than £20m adrift from where we need to be to get back to the standard we’d like to see and not part of managed decline.
“The whole of the country is facing that. If the Government wants to invest more, then local authorities like ours will be able to get closer to that.”
He said more was being done to spend the money Cornwall does have more proactively, including more surface treatment to prevent roads deteriorating. Cllr Rogerson added that gulley clearance had been reduced from four times a year to only once per annum by a previous administration, but data is being used to keep an eye on hotspots. “We do the best with the money we’ve got.”