Lib Dems pledge £13m to transform county's road network

2.05.47pm GMT Mon 15th Feb 2010

Kilian Bourke

A major £13m investment to transform the county's neglected roads, pavements and paths has been promised by Cambridge Liberal Democrats in their alternative budget.

This comes off the back of new figures which show that the condition of our highways and footways has deteriorated drastically and across the board.

They claim the money over the next two years, would help to address the problems caused by years of under-funding by the Tories.

The Lib Dems would also plough £1.25 million into public transport subsidies to help improve bus subsidies for better services in rural areas. A further 490,000 would maintain and increase support for community transport.

Kilian Bourke, Lib Dems spokesman for highways said: "The Tories' repeated budget cuts in recent years have cut away at the very fabric of our community. Our roads, pavements and cycle routes are neglected and in a disgraceful condition. Meanwhile cuts to our rural bus services have left people without vital transport.

"This cannot be allowed to continue. Our budget shows that by making aggressive cuts on non-essential spending we can make a real difference to services and facilities that people want and on which they rely."

The highways improvement programme would include:

• funding for a radically enhanced gritting service, including a network of gritting points to make sure that the fiasco of this winters was never repeated, and gritting of major cycleways and footways;

• massive one-off investment to bring our rapidly disintegrating footways and roads up to scratch;

• funding to meet the demand for lower speed limits, including 20mph zones, and better enforcement by mobile speed camera;

• basic traffic management, such as lines, signs and crossings, after the budget for these measures was abolished by the Tories in 2006.

Councillor Bourke added: "The Tories are not listening to the people. Their cuts are coming at the expense of basic services and infrastructure. This has to stop and it has to stop soon."