THE funding shortfall for Devon’s road network will be raised with the next Government, Devon County Council has announced.

In setting out its programmes for its capital and revenue budgets for highway maintenance, the County Council’s Cabinet yesterday (Wednesday 8 April) gave a commitment to make further representations to the incoming government.

The Council is receiving £42.3 million from the Department for Transport for its capital budget 2015/16 to deal with planned structural maintenance on Devon’s 8,000 miles of roads, which is the biggest highway network of any authority in the country.

Devon County Council needs to invest around £62 million a year on road surfaces alone to keep them in their current overall condition. Unclassified roads account for more than 50% of Devon’s highway network but a quarter of these roads need immediate significant work.

However, the current shortfall means the council cannot carry out all necessary structural repair work on lower category roads and is only able to react to safety defects and take steps to keep them safe.

Major capital schemes this financial year include resurfacing on the A388 from Stibb Cross to Holsworthy, the A3052 Trow Hill in Sidmouth, A3072 Higher Newland at North Tawton, A361 Gornhay Junction westbound on-slip at Tiverton, and A386 Calf Street to New Street in Great Torrington.

The Cabinet also agreed a revenue budget of £28.255 million, to fund reactive work such as pothole repairs, winter gritting and snow clearance and routine maintenance such as cleaning highway drainage systems, gully emptying and streetlight repairs.

This is a net reduction of £852,000 on last year’s budget. Following the County Council’s Tough Choices consultation, which received more than 3,000 responses, savings are being made in a number of areas including reductions in grass cutting, with only visibility areas including junctions and the inside of bends being cut; weed spraying and the treatment of noxious/injurious weeds is being stopped, and instead Community Payback volunteers will be used to hand pull weeds in heavily infested areas - and four picnic sites on the A361 and A39 are being closed or their maintenance responsibility transferred from Devon County Council.

More than £6.5 million will be set aside for safety defect/pothole repairs, and more than £900,000 for patching local roads.

A further £2.9 million will be spent on gully emptying and ditch cleaning, with more than £460,000 allocated for maintaining highway drainage.