NO PROGRESS TOWARDS 50 YEAR PAVEMENT

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Tue 19th Feb 2008

reported repair life cycle of 226 years for pavements!

Kent County Council have no current plans for reducing the repairs lifecycle of its pavements. This is despite the fact that pavements are always at the top of the list of the thousands of complaints.

At the Kent County Council meeting on the 19 February 2008, Ian Chittenden Liberal Democrat Member for Maidstone North East asked Keith Ferrin, Cabinet Members for Environment, Highways and Waste, based on the current budget proposals, how long it would take to achieve a full repair cycle for all pavements.

The question was based on the Local Transport Plan for Kent which in 2006 reported a repair life cycle of 226 years for pavements and suggested increased spending to cut this to 50 years. Mr Ferrin while reporting an additional allocation of £2.5million was made last year, said KCC had not yet decided on the Highways spending for next year, nor would he commit to doing so.

Ian says "While we know that Highways will have a substantial boost this year, I get more complaints about the state of pavements than any other aspect of Highway Management. I shall continue to press for a long-term plan for maintenance and repair with clear achievable projections is essential".

Extract of Local Transport Plan for Kent 2006-11 below

7.6 CURRENT INVESTMENT

Planned investment in the footway and cycleway network for 2006/07 is shown in

Table 7.1:

Table 7.1 - 2006/07 Allocations for Footway and Cycleway Maintenance

Work Type Revenue-funded

Repairs

Other Capital-

Funded Repairs

LTP Capital-funded

Repairs

Allocation in 2005/06 £0.261m £0.421m £3.020m

The sum of the revenue and capital "repairs" allocations is £3.702m. This level of investment will achieve a replacement life cycle of once in every 226 years.

Details of the full question and answer are available on the Kent Lib Dems website ' County Council Questions' page.

Related Link:

County Council Questions.