Welsh council roads spending hits 11-year low

Spending by local councils on roads and highways has fallen to an 11-year low, according to new figures.

Just under £171.8m was spent in the year to April - a drop of £18m on 2013/14, Welsh government figures show.

Only four out of 22 councils managed to maintain or increase their spending.

The Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) said less than 12% of roads are rated as being in a poor condition, which was "remarkable" given extreme pressures on budgets.

Councils are responsible for 32,000km - or 95% - of roads in Wales.

Conwy, Gwynedd, Newport and Monmouthshire managed to increase slightly their spending on roads and highways.

Powys council's spending on roads and highways went down from £11.4m to £7.4m and it has already warned its overall highways budget faces a possible £6.2m cut next year

It is looking at setting up a joint venture company or outsourcing as a solution.

The WLGA said latest performance figures showed 11.9% of the highways network was in a poor condition in 2014, an improvement on the 13.2% a year before.

"This trend of service improvement is remarkable considering the extreme pressures being placed on local budgets," said a spokesman.

"It clearly demonstrates local government's commitment to investing in our highways network."

He said Welsh councils were facing a projected budget shortfall of over £900m by 2019-20.

"Unfortunately, this means that it will be increasingly difficult for councils to maintain current levels of highways investment, especially in light of the continued policy of public sector austerity," said the spokesman.

The WLGA also said it was unfortunate the Welsh government was ending the local government borrowing initiative (LGBI) last April, which saw £172m invested into Wales' highways over the last three years.

This allowed councils to borrow for road repairs and plan for the long term.

"Without it there is a very real danger that we will be storing up significant maintenance problems for Wales' highway network in the future," said the spokesman.

Earlier this year, the Asphalt Industry Alliance's 2015 survey of councils estimated the average shortfall in highways budgets was £3.7m and that it would take 13 years for the Welsh roads maintenance backlog to be cleared.

The Welsh government said the LGBI made around £170m of new investment in roads "that simply would not have occurred without this decisive action".

"It is pleasing that the WLGA recognise the important role this initiative played," said a spokesperson.

"As a result of budgetary pressure we are having to spend scarce resources on maintaining local authority investment in a number of areas.

"The second phase of the LGBI is targeted at the education sector and will see around £170m of investment in the 21st Century Schools programme."