A TIVERTON councillor believes proposed cuts to Devon County Council’s highways budget could lead to a huge decline in the state of the county’s rural roads.

Cllr Des Hannon had called on the council to do more to keep roads ‘in good working order’ amid proposed cuts of £3.4m in 2015/16 – the council has already reduced its highways revenue budget by £18.5million since 2010 and must make further cuts due to the Government’s ongoing austerity measures.

Cllr Hannon said: “I think this really confirms my worries, carried on from last year about the declining state of our rural roads – you can keep under-investing for a certain length of time but no more.

“I understand the pressures on the council from central government funding and appreciate their challenges but I do wonder whether the processes that are being used to keep our roads in good working order are efficient as they can be.”

But Cllr Hannon praised the council for ‘thinking outside the box’ with plans to enlist the support of local communities to help maintain Devon’s 8,000-mile road network.

As part of the plans, volunteers would undertake minor maintenance work on the roads, which the county council is currently unable to do.

He said: “I am glad to see some thinking outside the box in getting road wardens to deal with minor faults in the road before they become a real problem – it may sound strange, fixing your own roads, but I think there’s definitely something to it.”

Cllr Stuart Hughes, the county council’s cabinet member with responsibility for highway management, said: “I’m pleased that Des is supporting the road wardens concept, echoing the positive reactions that we’ve received so far from parish and town councils.

“Government underfunding for highways has long been a challenge for local authorities, and none more so than in Devon where we have one of the longest road networks in the country, and an economy that relies on its infrastructure.

“We need £64 million a year to maintain our road network, but we receive a little over a half of that, and we now need to reduce our budget further due to continued funding cuts.

“The proposals put forward will provide savings but we want to know what people think about them before any decisions are made.”

The county council launched a public consultation last week on the proposed savings to its highways and traffic management service budget, which will close on Friday, December 5.