Monmouthshire Council are getting regular reports of bridges needing repair from residents and community councillors, but bridges are left damaged and decaying, with many bridges in a precarious state. These bridges are vital to the connectivity of communities in rural Monmouthshire in areas like Llangwm and the surrounding area. What can the cabinet member do to ensure these vital road networks are kept open and these historically significant structures are not in danger of disappearing for good?
Minutes:
Monmouthshire Council are getting regular reports of bridges needing repair from residents and community councillors, but bridges are left damaged and decaying, with many bridges in a precarious state. These bridges are vital to the connectivity of communities in rural Monmouthshire in areas like Llangwm and the surrounding area. What can the cabinet member do to ensure these vital road networks are kept open and these historically significant structures are not in danger of disappearing for good?
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County Councillor Catrin Maby, Cabinet Member for Climate Change and the Environment responded that she shared the concerns raised. Bridges are regularly monitored for safety and where they don't meet safety standards, restrictions are put in place until this can be remedied.
Officers show diligence in doing their best to manage what seems like an impossible situation arising from a substantial shortfall in funding for highways infrastructure across the UK over the last 15 years. A backlog of an estimated £80 million worth of work was inherited that needed to bring the highways network asset up to standard.
Monmouthshire County Council has 1600 kilometres of roads to maintain including the bridges with funding from Council budgets, with a workforce and budget of a similar size to SEWTRA which has 160 kilometres of road to maintain helping to explain why rural roads look rough compared to the trunk roads.
The Cabinet Member commented that the Council, under previous administrations, should have allocated more funds to roads to avoid getting them into the current state. Priority may have been given to other demands, such as social services and education.
The Cabinet Member consistently argues for more resources for roads and infrastructure, and that it is close to a critical point.
Residents concerns are understandably passed on to HIghways. The impacts of climate change with more frequent extreme weather events is adding to the damage to our infrastructure and it means that we sometimes have to divert from our planned programs to manage new more urgent problems.
Challenges are faced by highways teams in England and Wales and it's now recognised that there is not the level of funding needed to keep local roads in good condition. It is reported that the backlog of carriageway repairs in England and Wales has reached new heights at almost £17 billion.
While local roads are only resurfaced on average once every 93 years, and one in six miles are reported of only five years of structural life remaining, Over the last decade, more than £20 billion has been spent on carriageway maintenance in England and Wales, including spending to fill the equivalent of 1 pothole every 18 seconds, every day for 10 years. But unfortunately, due to the short term nature of the allocation of funding this has resulted in no quantifiable uplift in the condition and resilience of the network.
The Cabinet Member explained that the Council is ensuring that funding brought in is maximised and officers are currently submitting a bid to the local government borrowing initiative for improvements to roads and infrastructure, including bridges.
The funding bid was sent last week and as soon as officers know what's to be funded, a Members Workshop to discuss this year's programme of works will be arranged. The funding is welcome, but the amounts so far announced are relatively small compared to what is needed, and there are concerns about the stability of the supply chain and the cost of the materials.
A much more long-term substantial investment is needed in the network across the country to ensure that connectivity to our communities is maintained. The Cabinet Member has raised it in the community, in the Cardiff Capital Region and with Ministers.
In a supplementary question, Councillor Buckler highlighted that when bridges collapse, then there's an enormous job to do and asked that each Ward Councillor be provided with an overview of the bridges in their ward, when they were last surveyed and what sort of problems were flagged up.
The Cabinet Member agreed to ask what data is available and how it can be shared.
A Members Workshop is planned for the summer and it may be possible to have as much data as possible available to explain about bridges as well as roads before the workshop.