HAMPSHIRE County Council has backed the latest calls from the RAC and the AA for greater Government investment in roads – re-stating its own longstanding concerns about central funding to councils for highways maintenance.

Rob Humby, Hampshire County Council’s executive member for environment and transport, said: “I quite agree with the call from the country’s motoring organisations on the Government for more investment for local highway authorities to maintain and improve the road network.

“It’s important that councils, who are already facing considerable funding pressures, are given the help they need to maintain this critical infrastructure.

“Hampshire is one of the largest counties in England, with more than 5,300 miles of road – much of it rural.

“We estimate that around 95 per cent of all journeys are made on Hampshire’s roads and footways and, with one of the largest and busiest road networks in the country, the impact this has on the highways and footways is huge.

“Additionally, Hampshire has the highest car ownership in the country, and, our geography in the South means that traffic on our local roads leading to major motorways and trunk roads between major ports, airports, and routes to London and the industrial Midlands certainly takes its toll.

“Despite funding pressures Hampshire remains consistently the top county council in the South East in terms of public satisfaction with highways maintenance, and continues to perform well in line with top performing authorities when it comes to the condition of the road network. This is because we’ve worked really hard to find ways to invest in highways maintenance.”

Mr Humby continued: “In Hampshire, we’ve invested £10m into our Operation Resilience programme each year to deliver long-term structural repairs and improvements which last longer and are, therefore, more cost effective.

“We were pleased to be awarded £5m from the Government’s new National Productivity Investment Fund but would certainly welcome more investment into this vital infrastructure by central Government, so we can get on with the job that needs doing.”