Council apology after 'road to nowhere' resurfacing
NORTH Yorkshire County Council has ordered a county-wide review of its road maintenance policy in the wake of a storm of protest over a decision to resurface a dead-end farm track which cost £28,000 of taxpayers money.
It was revealed last week that the costly programme to resurface Bedlam Lane in Staveley went ahead, despite the shocking state of some 5,000 miles of roads across North Yorkshire.
Residents – who have just been hit with a "snow levy" on their council tax to pay for North Yorkshire County Council's multi-million pound road maintenance bill – questioned the decision and the council's priorities.
Now the county council has apologised for undertaking the work, and says it will review all of its planned road maintenance projects agreed before the big freeze, to divert funds to areas of greatest need.
David Bowe, assistant director of highways for the county council, said: "With hindsight it would have been more appropriate to delay the works on Bedlam Lane until other areas of damaged carriageway that are more heavily used had been addressed.
"The highway maintenance team across the county have been instructed to review planned schemes approved prior to the winter damage, in order to improve the damaged network in the most effective way."
Nick Stringer, chairman of Staveley and Copgrove Parish Council, said: "I am very pleased that common sense has prevailed and money will be spent on the roads that need it most, not farm tracks."
North Yorkshire County Council is faced with a 10m bill for mending potholes – opened up by the freezing weather – and an additional 9m for gritting.
A 1m emergency fund has already been earmarked from this year's revenue budget and the "snow levy" is expected to raise a further 1m to help meet the cost of repairs.
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Friday 10 February 2012
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