§ Mr. CummingsTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport whether the information on local authority expenditure on highway maintenance given in his reply to the hon. Member for Taunton (Mr. Nicholson),Official Report, 27 January, columns 260–2, included expenditure on public rights of way; and if he will list for each shire county for the years 1984–85, 1985–86 and 1986–87, the expenditure on maintenance of rights of way.
§ Mr. Peter BottomleyExpenditure on the maintenance of public rights of way will generally be included as part of local highway authorities' total expenditure on highway maintenance. Figures are available only for expenditure on the maintenance of "footways, cycle tracks and other rights of way" by shire counties in 1984–85, 1985–86 and 1986–87. These are shown in the following table. No further disaggregation of these figures is possible.
451W
Local authority highway maintenance expenditure Footways, Cycle tracks and other rights of way £ million County 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 Avon 3.101 3.115 3.311 Bedfordshire 0.696 0.783 0.752 Berkshire 0.920 1.152 1.350 Buckinghamshire 1.711 2.000 1.956 Cambridgeshire 1.058 0.646 1.606 Cheshire 1.646 2.411 2.467 Cleveland 1.048 0.347 0.355
County 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 Cornwall 1.485 1.303 1.850 Cumbria 0.953 0.303 0.945 Derbyshire 1 941 2.017 2.548 Devon 2.021 2.646 2 612 Dorset 0.700 0.870 0.890 Durham 2.725 2.175 1.955 East Sussex 0.869 1.197 1.814 Essex 4.312 4.948 5.641 Gloucestershire 0.951 1.028 1.310 Hampshire 1.407 1.304 1.383 Hereford and Worcestershire 1.122 1.311 1.492 Hertfordshire 2.231 2.372 1.679 Humberside 2.687 2.581 3.045 Isle of Wight 0.384 0.126 0.129 Kent 3.084 3.200 3.219 Lancashire 1.719 1.974 1.904 Leicestershire 1.631 3.035 3.265 Lincolnshire 2.363 2.549 3.075 Norfolk 1.445 1.657 1.696 Northamptonshire 1.283 0.967 1.131 Northumberland 0.196 0.248 0.254 North Yorkshire 0.431 0.473 0.499 Nottinghamshire 3.686 4.073 3.654 Oxfordshire 1.004 1.032 1.092 Shropshire 0.183 0.080 0.104 Somerset 0.850 0.589 0.527 Staffordshire 1.303 1.897 0.877 Suffolk 1 192 1.462 2.043 Surrey 1,608 1.959 2.109 Warwickshire 0.654 1.178 1.377 West Sussex 1.718 1.809 2.715 Wiltshire 0.252 0.581 1.427 Source: Local Authority Maintenance Outturn Forms.
The Countryside Commission is currently carrying out a survey of spending on footpaths, bridleways and other public rights of way. Their provisional figure for maintenance spending by shire counties as a whole for 1986–87 is in the region of £3 million.