Funding crisis looms over West Midlands roads
“Birmingham is not an island,” he said. “It is at the heart of a wider network of roads that link the region. If other local authorities have to cut budgets, and this impacts on the state of their roads, it won’t matter how good Birmingham’s PFI deal is, it won’t be immune from problems.
“People travel from around the region and country to get into Birmingham and so the whole network has to be working well.”
But local authorities remain confident about this winter and their current budgets for highways maintenance.
Birmingham City Council’s current capital budget for Highways and Transportation is £46.3 million.
Experts believe this, coupled with the PFI project, will bring vast improvements to the city’s road network. When looking at the state of roads this winter, authorities are doing their best to prepare for snowfall and ice.
A Birmingham City Council spokesman said: “Last winter was extremely challenging for the Winter Maintenance Service and there was also a national rock salt shortage during early February 2009.
“While this did create problems for all local authorities including ourselves, at no point did Birmingham City Council either reduce or suspend its gritting treatment.”
Sandwell Council has earmarked £11 million for highways maintenance but refused to rule out future cuts.
Coun Mahboob Hussain said: “Next year’s budget has not been set yet but, although there is pressure on all local authority budgets, Sandwell is working hard to protect all frontline services so no reduction is anticipated at this stage.”
A Solihull Council spokeswoman confirmed that the current budget for highways maintenance was £1.6 million. She said: “There are no plans to change this but that is not to say a change will not happen.”
A Walsall Council spokeswoman said the current budget is £5.7million for roads, but it was too early in the budget process to say if that will change.
