WHILE many councils across the country are slashing their budgets for road and footway repairs, Bexley says it will be spending more this year.

Two of the harshest winters on record have caused unprecedented damage to roads across the country, with a national bill for repairs estimated at £13b.

Bexley says it has allocated just over £3m in this year’s budget to maintain the borough’s 300 miles of roadway and 600 miles of pavement, which is the same amount as last year.

In addition, the government is giving councils an extra £200m to help with the repairs.

This year Bexley has been given an extra £300,000.

Bexley says its technicians walk every inch of the borough’s streets twice year to make sure the roads and footways are in a safe condition.

In addition, technical condition surveys are done to draw up a shortlist of major priority repairs to include in the council’s major works programme.

It has 33 major repair schemes scheduled for this year, at a cost of £1.4m.

But Bexley says the scale of the task facing the council is huge and each year there is only a limited amount of cash available,so each repair project has to be assessed against a set of criteria to decide which will get priority.

Bexley’s cabinet member for the environment, Councillor Gareth Bacon says: “Investing in maintaining our highways is essential and we know that is a priority for our residents.”

He added: “I know not every road or pavement is not as we would like it to be, but we have protected the road maintenance budget and we are working to make the best possible use of the resources we have.”

You can report road and pavement damage through the council’s website at bexley.co.uk/reportahighwaydefect or call 020 8303 7777.