County council leader Philip Atkins has spoken out on how a £1billion allocation of Government funding for building new roads to ease congestion should be spent.
Atkins proposed the funding, announced by Transport Secretary Chris Grayling, needs to alleviate pressure on smaller rural networks, and should be evenly distributed across the country and not just in larger urban areas.
He said: “We welcome today’s announcement which potentially could make a difference to the network here in Staffordshire. Communities in this county regularly suffer when one of the main strategic roads such as the M6 or A38 closes or is part closed – driving heavy traffic onto our smaller networks and causing real problems. Funds therefore need to ensure the national network is more resilient.
“We also want to see the money evenly distributed across the country, meaning county areas can benefit rather than just the larger urban areas. We are seeing a significant amount of development in Staffordshire and this will pick up pace over the next decade. The county council has been successful in ensuring the infrastructure is in place for this and we have demonstrated how effective we are in delivering it. Any improvements to our existing network will ensure we can remove any restrictions to traffic flow that can restrict growth.”
There is currently only Government funding available for large A roads & motorways managed by Highways England. This means smaller roads, such as our own A34, suffer heavy traffic, especially on days when surrounding motorways are closed. Local authorities are left to apply for special grants as the only way to help improve the situation.
