More money available to fix roads in Swansea

An extra £1 million is being put towards maintaining Swansea’s roads after the Council agreed its latest annual budget.

The additional money is being transferred from the council’s insurance fund which is normally used to pay for insurance claims against the council.

It will be used to fund high priority highway maintenance schemes and will follow on from similar work completed in the past twelve months and has previously included highway improvements and repairs in Townhill, Bonymaen, Llansamlet and Penderry.

Mark Thomas, Cabinet Member for Environment and Transportation, said: “The public expects the council to invest a significant amount of its budget in repairing roads and pavements. When we consulted with people on our priorities road repairs was very high up the list.

“It’s important that we use the money effectively and use it to maintain roads that are most in need of repairs.

“By investing in road repairs we have been able to reduce the amount of money we payout for highway related insurance claims in the last few years.”

Latest figures show that in 2014, the Council paid out £168,000 in total against non personal and personal injury claims relating to highway defects. In 2005 the figure stood at £331,000.

Recently the council also announced the latest plans to visit every ward in the city during 2015 as part of the PATCH road repair programme. Highway maintenance teams will spend up to two weeks in each ward as part of a rolling programme. The teams will be in St Thomas and Bonymaen during April. A full list of where the teams will be is now online.

Cllr Thomas added: “The PATCH repair programme has been hugely successful in helping to target the worst roads in every ward in the city.”