Chris Ames

2 months ago | localgov.co.uk | Chris Ames

The Department for Transport (DfT) has said it will not ask Norfolk County Council to return £33m funding towards its shelved £274m link road. In January the highway authority withdrew its planning application for the Norwich Western Link scheme after advice from Natural England about its impact on bats, leaving the council at risk of having to repay the DfT funding.

2 months ago | localgov.co.uk | Chris Ames

A major council insurer has called for increased funding for local authority road maintenance and more flexibility when spending it. Ahead of the Spending Review, Zurich Municipal said that the government pledge of £1.6bn in 2025-26 to tackle ‘the pothole plague’ won't begin to put a dent in the backlog of potholes that has impacted the nation, with an estimated £16bn required in order to repair local roads.

Jan 16, 2025 | localgov.co.uk | Chris Ames

Surrey County Council is thought to be the first local authority in the UK to move away from manual inspections and solely use video and Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology to log and programme pothole repairs. Computer vision cameras fitted to dashboards inside the authority’s highways vehicles will spot and photograph potholes and other defects, which will then be automatically recorded for repair.

Dec 2, 2024 | localgov.co.uk | Chris Ames

Senior Department for Transport (DfT) officials have made clear that councils can no longer count on the previous government’s pledge of an extra £8.3bn over 11 years for local highway maintenance. At a Public Accounts Committee hearing on local roads in England, committee chair Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP referenced the ‘pot’ of £8.3bn additional cash said to be redirected from HS2.

Nov 26, 2024 | localgov.co.uk | Chris Ames

The crash rate on major local authority roads in England is four times that on National Highways’ strategic road network (SRN), a new report has found. The Road Safety Foundation’s (RSF) annual crash risk mapping report argues that investing £2.5bn in road safety schemes – mostly in local roads – could prevent more than 17,000 deaths and serious injuries over the next 20 years, saving society nearly £9bn.