Street works being carried out inside an exclusion zone

New £4m roadworks for York

York’s transport boss has set out where more than £4 million will be spent, repairing and improving the city’s roads and footpaths.

The Annual Highway Maintenance Report has been approved by Neil Ferris, City of York Council’s director of city and environmental services.

It includes a long list of roads that have had the funding confirmed for repairs this year.

In drawing up the spending plan, council staff have had to survey all the roads and footpaths in the council’s network and rate them from 1 to 5, with 1 being the best score.

On the 1 to 5 rating system, about 60 per cent of footpaths were in grade 3. Just under a third were given a 2 rating, and the rest were split between either top quality 1 ratings or the worst conditions of 4 or 5.

Among roads, about half scored 3 and 27 per cent scored 2. The principal roads were in better condition with more than a tenth in top condition with group 1 ranking. Among other roads, that number fell to three per cent.

The money for the roadworks comes from City of York Council’s own funds and specific Local Transport Plan funding.

The report also shows that in the coming years, authorities like City of York will have to up their performance when it comes to roads maintenance, in order to keep hold of government funding for the repairs.

The Department for Transport funding is being “incentivised” – from the 2015/16 financial year onwards, according to how well councils perform.

York, and other areas in the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, currently performs at “Band 2″ level, the middle of three grades. Although Band 2 areas get 100 per cent of the available funding this year, 2016/17, next year that drops to 90 per cent and by 2020/21 they will only get 30 per cent.

Only by improving its performance in areas like resilience and efficiency and becoming a Band 3 authority could York make sure it keeps all the roads funding in coming years.