Devon bids for highways fund

Devon County Council has submitted a £44 million bid to the Government for additional funding for major resurfacing, drainage and streetlight improvements on some of Devon’s most critical road infrastructure.

Devon is attempting to secure a share of the £575 million Local Highways Maintenance Challenge Fund. In a joint collaboration with Torbay Council, it’s looking to secure £34.29 million to fund improvements to the A39 and A361 North Devon Link Road and the A380, all of which serve future growth developments which are currently in the pipeline.

The road upgrade schemes are designed to improve the reliability of the routes by minimising the need for routine and reactive maintenance, which can have a significant impact in delaying local businesses and people.

The bid is seeking £16.8 million to carry out a major reconstruction of the A361 from Junction 27 of the M5 to Bolham, with a further £10.9 million to renew the A39 from Barnstaple to Bideford.

The bid also includes improvements at the Bishops Tawton roundabout and an access junction to the Tiverton Eastern Urban Extension (EUE). These are among several junction improvements planned for these busy roads to support new urban extensions, unlocking development sites around Bideford, Barnstaple and  Tiverton.

On the A380 to Torbay, a joint bid with Torbay Council of  £6.6 million is needed to improve the old road through Kingskerswell to encourage walking and cycling for local journeys, and a stretch of single and dual carriageway could also be renewed, between Kerswell Gardens and Smallcombe cross, to the south of the new South Devon Link Road dual-carriageway.

Devon County Council is also seeking £10.2 million from the fund to replace 25,000 ageing street lights on main roads across Devon with energy efficient LED lighting. The introduction of LED lighting would reduce energy costs by over £1million per year and reduce carbon usage by 60% on over a third of the county’s streetlights. The scheme would also replace 5,000 streetlight columns.

Councillor Stuart Hughes, Devon County Council Cabinet Member for Highway Management and Flood Prevention, called for local MPs to support Devon’s bid.

He said: “The Challenge Maintenance Funding offers an ideal opportunity to move from a highway maintenance strategy of prevention to one of resilience on priority sections of our road network. The County Council and local residents are extremely concerned about the poor condition of some of our minor rural roads and with the constraints on funding available to us, it is getting more and more difficult to meet the needs of rural areas of the county. The continuing shortfall in capital funding for highway maintenance prevents us from meeting those local needs to repair all of the minor road network and we’re having to transform the way we work by engaging with communities and managing demand across the network. Reducing routine and reactive maintenance on our busiest roads through the challenge fund enables us to move this forward.

“There is heavy reliance on the A361, A39 and A380. Some growth in North Devon has already been unlocked since the construction of the Barnstaple Western Bypass. Future growth plans makes the strengthening of the resilience of all of these roads all the more important. If we are able to carry out these improvement works it can help drive economic prosperity across the county. This funding would have a positive impact in Devon, and we need the support of our local MPs to lobby the Roads Minister Robert Goodwill to approve our bids.”

The successful bids will be announced by the end of March. If both of Devon’s bids are successful, funding will be spread over three financial years from 2015/16 to 2017/18.