Liverpool outlines £200m road improvement plan

A report will go ahead of Liverpool City Council’s cabinet tomorrow setting out a project to invest £200m in highway repairs over the next five years.

The council said that £15m would be earmarked for addressing potholes, £25m for resurfacing and patching work and, over the net half-decade, that £160m will be spent on road reconstruction.

Liverpool intends to borrow £185m over 25 years at low interest rates to fund the roadworks scheme, with this being supported by savings generated by the council’s transformation plan and ‘Invest to Earn’ strategy, which generates income streams from commercialising council assets.

The council, which highlighted £444m in central government cuts since 2010, added that a recent peer review by the Local Government Association found that Liverpool had prudent levels of debt for one of the major core cities and robust financial management processes in place.

Joe Anderson, city mayor, said: “This major new investment in our highways is a response to the scale of the problem we face.

“The people of Liverpool can be assured that we have been lobbying the government consistently in recent years to help us fix the problem, but it’s clear from the Chancellor’s recent spring statement there is no reprieve from the Government’s austerity programme.”

The council already has a £300m highways improvement plan under way, covering projects such as the phased City Centre Connectivity Scheme, along with repair projects. This programme started in early 2016 and has seen four projects completed, including the BID Streets scheme.

Anderson continued: “We cannot wait for help to arrive, so I have decided that we will take action to address the problem of potholes and poor road surfaces with this major new investment, which will radically transform the quality of our road network across the city.

“High quality roads are the arteries of a modern, fast-growing city like Liverpool.”

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