Around £100m is set to be invested in improving Northumberland’s vast transport network over the next three years.
The Council’s Cabinet is being recommended to approve its Local Transport Plan (LTP) – which for the first time will cover a three-year period up to 2029.
Subject to external funding agreements being confirmed, over £38m could be spent over the next 12 months, with around £32m invested in each of the subsequent two years.
The money will be spent on transport improvements right across the county – from repairing roads to improving infrastructure and creating safer streets.
Cabinet Member for Roads and Highways Councillor Mark Mather explained: “We’re spending more than ever on our road network as it’s an absolute priority for us and residents.
“The three-year-programme has been developed following a comprehensive review of road safety issues, potential improvement schemes and future maintenance costs.
“We’ve also worked closely with our County and Town and Parish Councillors to understand local priorities, as well as considering requests and issues raised by the public, which are then all assessed against a range of technical criteria, to develop a programme which benefits all areas of Northumberland.
“Committing to a three-year plan also allows us to be more strategic in our planning and see where funding can be best spent over the coming years to ensure we deliver the best value for money possible.”
The coming year’s programme alone, if all funding streams approved, will see over £28m spent on roads, £4m spent on repairing landslips and improving bridges and other structures – almost £2.5m on new safety schemes and £1.9m on maintenance of footways, cycleways and the public rights of way network.
Details of all the proposed schemes across the county are available at >> nland.cc/LTPdetailsCllr Mather added: “Delivering improved maintenance and investment in our roads, paths and cycleways is one of our top priorities.
“We’re at the forefront of trialling new technologies, we’ve a dedicated team and a range of specialised equipment all designed to keep our county moving.”
“We’ve over 3,000 miles of roads, many of which are subject to hugely changeable weather conditions and very exposed to the elements.
“That’s why we’re investing so heavily in this area. Our roads are in better condition but we need to keep this trend going.
Aside from the major towns we’ve thousands of residents living in scattered communities who use our roads, paths and cycleways every day, and we’re investing an extra £1m of our own funds specifically on these more rural roads.”
Residents are encouraged to report any highway issues they encounter via FixMyStreet at nland.cc/fix which helps teams quickly identify problems and respond effectively.