§ Dr. FoxTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what grants have been made available to North Somerset council for bridge strengthening and related works in each of the last three years. [38459]
§ Mr. Jamieson[holding answer 28 February 2002]: The Government are committed to halting the deterioration in local road conditions by 2004 and to eliminating the backlogs in carriageway, footway, bridge and street lighting maintenance by 2010. Over £30 billion for local road maintenance will be provided over the next 10 years, an extra £9 billion (41 per cent.) above the funding levels in the previous 10 years—an increase of 23 per cent. in real terms. This extra money will allow us to tackle the substantial backlog in local road maintenance due to past under-investment.
North Somerset council have received the following grant allocations for highway maintenance and bridge strengthening works over the last three years. The figures for the financial years 2000–01 and 2001–02 have been allocated under the Local Transport Plan process. However 373W the allocation given for the preceding year 1999–2000 was administered under the previous Transport Policies and Programmes process.
Highway maintenance and bridge strengthening Allocation £000 1999–2000 686 2000–01 895 2001–02 3,173