Councils protect road maintenance but spend on traffic schemes falls

Local authorities have protected revenue spending on highway maintenance despite reductions in grant funding, figures compiled by the Government suggest. But the expenditure data shows councils have made deep cuts to traffic management and road safety spending.

The Department for Communities and Local Government statistics on outturn revenue expenditure for local authorities in England state that in 2011/12 councils spent £2.1bn on highways maintenance, the same as in 2010/11. This was despite a reduction in formula grant to local government of 12% for 2011/12.

Overall revenue spending on highways and transport services fell to £5.4bn, from £5.7bn the previous year, a 5% reduction.

The category of highways and transport revenue spending that suffered the biggest cut in overall and percentage terms was “other traffic management” which covers pedestrian crossings and road safety schemes. Outturn spending in this area fell sharply from £320m to £110m.

Spending reductions were also recorded for public transport co-ordination (down £112m or 19%); support to bus operators (down £26m or 8%); and road safety education and safe routes (down £21m or 17%).

The outturn figures on capital expenditure on highways and transport also reveal a sharp reduction in 2011/12 compared to the previous year, of 10%.

The biggest reduction in capital spending for the service area was on the construction, conversion and renovation of roads, including structural maintenance, where £2.4bn was spent. This was £313m less than in the previous year, but comparable to the £2.5bn figure in 2009/10, the last year of the previous Government.

Bob Donaldson, chair of the Local Government Technical Advisor Group’s transportation committee, told LTT: “These figures show that local authorities are doing what they can to protect the essential highways services road users rely on but that this is at the expense of discretionary services.

“The sharp fall in spending on traffic management schemes is of concern as this could have an impact on road safety and congestion.”

Donaldson said that the “surprising” figure in the statistical publication on revenue outturn expenditure was a £185m increase in spending on transport planning, policy and strategy compared to the previous year.

“This figure does not appear to reflect the reality on the ground,” he said. “Additional bidding costs for funds and work on local development frameworks could not account for such a large increase,” he said.

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