Cheshire East seeks to ‘quality assure’ future road repairs

New quality assurance officers will be recruited to inspect work carried out on the borough’s roads as part of the council’s commitment to ensuring value for money.

This will help the authority drive up the quality of highways repairs and ensure value for money in the work done. 

Cheshire East Council recently approved a new budget, which includes a £19m capital investment in planned highways maintenance over the next three years.

However, this investment by Cheshire East Council is set against the backdrop of a £3m cut in government funding for highways maintenance in 2020/21, and a freeze in government funding for the next three years. 

For many years, funding for highways maintenance has been below the level necessary to prevent deterioration of the highways network. The council is now seeking to ensure that these limited funds are spent in the most cost-effective way possible.

Councillor Craig Browne, chair of the council’s highways and transport committee, said: “The vast majority of our residents understand that budgets are tight. However, they are also frustrated when they see the deterioration in the condition of the highway.

“I am pleased that this investment in quality assurance will go some way towards addressing that. The council has the in-house skills to work with our contractor to ensure we improve performance, deliver high-quality work and demonstrate we are a council that listens to residents’ concerns and acts on them.” 

Councillor Laura Crane, vice-chair of the council’s highways and transport committee, said: “Whilst the level of funding provided by central government is simply inadequate to meet the maintenance needs of Cheshire East’s roads and prevent them deteriorating further, we are increasing that level of investment by £19m over the next three years. 

“This additional investment is having to be funded by borrowing, which although necessary in the short term, isn’t a sustainable position in the long term.

“The only real positive from this settlement is that we at least have funding certainty for the next three years so can better plan ahead, looking at how we can use the financial surety to generate even greater value for money. 

“But the frozen level of government funding does not take into account inflation, which is running year on year at a 30-year high – so we are looking in real-terms at a cut in government funding each year.”

In addition to the additional investment in the road repairs programme this year, the council is also planning to increase spending on highways inspections, responding to emergencies, hedge/tree maintenance and managing flood risk, including gully emptying.

Councillor Browne added: “We are a large semi-rural authority with a complex and extensive highways network. Assessment by our strategic highways team shows that we need to invest close to £30m each year to keep the roads in their current state and this level of funding has not been achieved for many years. 

“This means that we are now facing a backlog of repair works totalling well over £100m, which remains unfunded.”

The council is to initially recruit one quality assurance officer. The council’s head of highways also has a newly-expanded quality assurance role.