Bids of up to £6million will be submitted to UK Government to fix Powys roads

At a meeting of the Economy, Residents and Community scrutiny committee on Thursday, June 10, it was revealed that the council is planning to bid for UK Government levelling up funding.

At the time the councillors were discussing the controversial Covid Recovery Fund of £2million over two years which included £1.8 million that was given by the Welsh Government to cover pandemic costs.

Of this, £340,000 a year will go on fixing potholes.

The bid was revealed by corporate director for economy and environment, Nigel Brinn.

Mr Brinn said: “We know we have a deteriorating network, and we will have put in quite a significant bid for capital financing from the levelling up fund to support our network.

“In terms of whether recovery means the visitor economy or access to services we all appreciate how important the (highways) network work is.”

He believed given the financial resources available work maintaining the roads is “pretty strong” on the vast rural network which covers a quarter of Wales.

Mr Brinn said: “We have identified three specific schemes to go into our levelling up funding proposal, the work being done is very good given the time available and it’s a strong and credible case why we need particular support for our extensive network.

Head of highways, Matt Perry pointed out that the £340, 000 from the Covid Recovery Fund, is “quite small in the grand scheme” of highway maintenance.

Mr Perry said: “We’re looking in the region of five to six million just to confirm the resurfacing works and invest in those areas of the highways network so that it boosts the local economy.”

Council leader Cllr Rosemarie Harris, said: “We’ll bid for more as part of the levelling up funding, obviously we’ve had all those years of austerity when we were unable to invest in roads and we are aware that there is an opportunity for us to bring things back up to a standard that will help the economy.”

Committee chairman, Councillor Mathew Dorrance, asked for evidence of how the portholes were effecting rural businesses?

Mr Brinn answered that many campsites and visitor attractions are in rural locations.

Cllr Dorrance said: “What that is, is further evidence that the council through its Highways Asset Management Plan (HAMP) is underfunded.

“The reality is we have not put enough money in it and we’re having to boost it with this additional funding.

“The evidence from the sector should be driving this and it doesn’t sound like we’re there yet.”

Bids for the UK Government’s Community Renewal Fund, which is seen as a replacement for European grant funding, need to be backed by local MP’s and submitted to Westminster by June 18.

The money needs to be used by March 31, 2022.

It is seen as a precursor to the UK Shared Prosperity Fund which is said to be worth £4.8 billion and will be launched in 2022.

Back in September 2020 the Cabinet decided to take £2.6 million away from the £5 million annual road, bridge and street lighting repairs budget.

An extra grant of £1.5 million from the Welsh Government softened the blow and saw the budget drop to £3.9 million rather than £2.4million.

At the time it was a cost cutting measure being implemented to protect the council’s finances for 2020/21 during the Covid-19 pandemic,

This money should be put back into the HAMP over the next two financial years.

The HAMP was approved in February 2020, with £50million earmarked for maintenance.

The report at the time said that double this investment (£100million or £10million a year) is needed to” improve the condition” of roads in Powys.

Powys is currently ranked 22nd (of 22 Welsh local authorities) for its road conditions.