News

"Reliability and ease of use of charging infrastructure will be vital to continue attracting more people to make the switch to greener transport"

Cllr David Renard responds to the Transport Secretary’s announcement of a £1.7 billion investment into repairing local roads to improve journeys for cyclists, pedestrians and drivers.

“Councils want to invest in cost-effective and resilient resurfacing, rather than retrospectively dealing with potholes and this funding is a significant boost towards improving more of the 186,000 miles of England’s local roads."

“Councils are determined to tackle climate change and are already supporting the transition to electric vehicles. It is good that the Queen’s Speech outlines ambitions to speed up this transition but councils need clarity about their role in delivering this change."

"It is the job of councils to plan the future shape of our towns and cities and we hope this guide will serve as a useful primer to get local politicians and senior officers thinking about the impact on their area.”

The LGA is calling on the Department for Transport to end emergency measures forcing councils to fund concessionary bus fares at pre-COVID19 travel levels, amid concern about its sustainability and the impact it is having on council budgets being stretched by the pandemic.

It is councils - who know their communities best - that should be trusted to make local transport decisions not Whitehall.

Over 9.5 million potholes could be repaired or prevented by councils with the funding lost from local road maintenance budgets this year – the equivalent of 64,000 repairs in every local council area.

"Councils in England face an overall funding gap that is expected to exceed £5 billion 2020. Faced with ongoing and significant funding pressures, the LGA said councils will struggle to maintain current subsidies for bus routes across the country."

The Government’s £2.5 billion Pothole Repair Fund - announced in the Budget - will help councils to do more to maintain our roads this year and will go a long way to help tackling our local road repairs backlog.