Derbyshire County Council looks set to borrow £13.5m to resurface its roads rather than carry on spending its ‘increasingly scarce budget’ on fixing potholes.
The loan would part-fund a £23m maintenance programme designed to extend the life of roads by up to 15 years. The remainder of the money would made up of £6m from the council’s reserves and £3.5m from local transport grant.
‘Over the past few years we have been spending more and more of our increasingly scarce budget on fixing potholes and not enough on maintaining our roads,’ said Cllr Dean Collins, deputy cabinet member for jobs, economy and transport.
‘This means that we have many hundreds of miles of roads that have just started to deteriorate and need urgent work to stop their condition getting any worse.
‘This major investment looks to improve the condition of those roads and extend their life by ten to 15 years. Surface dressing makes a road waterproof – and it’s keeping the water out that will keep the potholes at bay long-term.
‘And surface dressing also helps to improve skid resistance so we'll be helping to protect against accidents on the roads. We're targeting our resources to achieve the maximum gain over the next ten years.’
The proposal will be considered by the council’s cabinet on August 5.
