How is additional £7.7m of roads funding going to be spent in Northumberland?

Bridges, rural roads and drains are all set to benefit after Northumberland was awarded an extra £7.7million of government funding.
Coun Glen Sanderson, cabinet member for local services.Coun Glen Sanderson, cabinet member for local services.
Coun Glen Sanderson, cabinet member for local services.

The county council has been allocated an additional £7.732million from the Department for Transport’s Local Transport Plan Capital Block Funding for 2018-19.

Coun Glen Sanderson, who is responsible for local services, set out where this would be spent at Tuesday’s (December 11) meeting of the authority’s cabinet.

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“This is fantastic news for the county,” he said. “An extra £8million is very valuable for us, having been through a very difficult winter.”

He explained that an additional programme of work to bridges would be funded, which would include a start to repairs to Berwick’s Old Bridge, while a ‘significant amount of resurfacing’ will also take place.

There will be refurbishment of minor roads in rural areas, which, ‘let’s face it, do need a lot of work so we will try to catch up on as much of that as possible’.

A pot of £1.5million will be split between the area managers to spend on necessary refurbishment work but also drainage, while £1million has been allocated to improve the roads and infrastructure on Northumberland’s industrial estates – ‘a shot in the arm to show we are serious about our economic plan’.

Ben O'Connell, Local Democracy Reporting Service