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27
Mar
Row over pothole funding in North Yorkshire and York reaches Parliament
A row over pothole repair funding in North Yorkshire and York has reached Parliament.
Harrogate and Knaresborough Liberal Democrat MP Tom Gordon spoke in the House of Commons this week about a highways maintenance settlement from the Department for Transport.
The MP asked if it was fair that David Skaith, the Labour Mayor of York and North Yorkshire had reallocated around £4 million in road repair funding from North Yorkshire to York by “tinkering” with a ratio which sets funding levels for the authorities.
In response, Simon Lightwood MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Department for Transport, said it was up to local leaders to decide how to spend the funding.
Commenting on the exchange, Liberal Democrat MP Mr Gordon, said the government was “passing the buck”.
It’s a double whammy of chronic underfunding from both the minister and the mayor: no longer recognising the additional costs of delivering services in sparsely populated areas and now adding insult to injury for people in rural North Yorkshire with a highways cut – how is that fair?
'Ridiculous claim'
But in response to the criticism, a spokesperson for the mayor said the MP was making a “ridiculous claim”.
They added:
It’s hard to understand how a £450m settlement, £268m of which is just for potholes, and just for North Yorkshire Council, which is £75m more in the next four years than the last four, can be described as ‘chronic underfunding’.
Harrogate and Knaresborough residents expect results from politicians, not cheap political jibes.
Last week, furious North Yorkshire council chiefs accused the mayor of “highways robbery” over claims the county is losing £20m in funding to fix potholes and resurface roads.
While the mayor said the unitary authority was receiving a record-breaking £268m over the next four years to fix roads thanks to an increase in government funding, North Yorkshire Council says it will actually receive around £20m less over the four years from changes planned by the mayor than it would if the money came directly from the DfT.
Senior councillors say a new calculation devised by the mayor would mean £4m redirected from North Yorkshire Council to City of York Council.
Around £30m is being set aside to use for repairs to the major roads network, with another funding pot being allocated for minor improvements such as dropped kerbs and new crossings.
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