COUNTY Green Party councillors have accused highways chiefs of ‘failing Worcestershire residents’ after it won a paltry £50,000 from the Department of Transport’s (DfT) Capability Fund.
Despite an average award of £225,000, only Rutland Council with a population of just 37,000 people had a lower award than Worcestershire according to the party’s Coun Matthew Jenkins.
However Coun Alan Amos, the county’s highway boss, hailed the Conservative Party’s budget for the next three years as one of ‘boundless ambition and limitless achievement’ which gives residents ‘the choice of how they travel.
Funds were to support staffing and resources to draw up infrastructure plans and behaviour change ideas to promote cycling and walking in their areas.
Coun Jenkins claimed the County Council had been slow compared to almost everywhere else in the country to realise ‘putting the private car above any other form of transport has got them nowhere’.
“When the County Council fail to win money, they fail residents. Without funding, there are no meaningful improvements to our walking and cycling infrastructure, and with more people living in the city, our roads will become more gridlocked,” he said.
In response, Coun Amos said the budget agreed for the county’s highways and transport network was ‘remarkable’ with spending and investment increasing to record levels.
“Whether it’s roads, footways, buses, rail, walking, or cycling we’re expanding capacity to meet the demands of a rapidly growing economy and population and – as Conservatives – we continue to give people choice in how they choose to travel,” he said.
“We’re not going to close roads; reduce road space or capacity; or remove residents parking spaces. We’re going to keep traffic moving, that’s what residents and businesses want and need.”
The outspoken highways boss said congestion remained the biggest concern for residents and said the highways department had retained a ‘laser-like focus’ on the matter.
Among the highlights in the budget is an additional £6million a year which will deliver an additional 135 miles of road, an extra £4million a year for 108 miles of new footpaths, an additional £1million each year to tackle drainage and flooding matters and more money to convert Worcestershire’s street lights to energy efficient LED’s.
Public transport has been given a boost with Coun Amos quick to point out the work being done by county highway’s bosses on the buses, trains and to boost walking in Worcestershire.
“We have enthusiastically put in an £86million bid to the Government for a Bus Service Improvement Plan, outlining how we intend to completely transform the county’s bus network once and for all,” he said.
“We want to cut congestion and get cars off the road.
“Together with the train, buses are the obvious and real alternative to achieving that, to make it a form of transport that people use because they want to, not because they have to,” he added.
