£48m major highways investment to be rolled out in Nottinghamshire

The £48m cash boost forms part of the highways capital and revenue programme and has been provisionally approved by Nottinghamshire County Council’s Transport and Environment Committee.

Council chiefs say the money will be spent on repairing roads, boosting flood defences and encouraging more folk to take up walking and cycling.

A further funding announcement is expected by the council’s new Conservative administration in due course – which the authority says will build on the extra £24m invested during the previous administration – and will be steered by the results of the newly appointed cross-party highways panel.

Coun Neil Clarke, chairman of the Transport and Environment Committee, said the ‘significant investment’ reflected the council’s ‘ongoing commitment’ to improving county’s highways and transport network.

“I have stated before how seriously I take my new role and I am committed to ensuring that the public’s money is spent in the most effective way,” he said.

"Not only will the programme of investment further improve the quality of road repairs and maintenance with new technology, it will also support schemes to protect our communities from flooding, as well as helping us to further promote walking and cycling.

“The investment is part of our strategy to support the local economy, promote health and wellbeing and ensure communities thrive.”

The £48m investment follows feedback by councillors, stakeholders and residents and includes:

- £22.867m allocated to capital maintenance schemes to improveroads and other highway assets;

- £5.967m allocated to integrated transport schemes such as pedestrian crossings, capacity improvements and speed management schemes – which includes £0.35m of additional funding for road safety schemes; as well as allocations to fund major transport scheme business cases;

- £19.017m of funding secured to deliver the Gedling Access Road, active travel programmes and to continue delivery of the street lighting upgrades;

- £0.434m of revenue funding to deliver the traffic management revenue programme.

The investment will also include £1m of council capital for Property Flood Resilience (PFR) measures to protect communities most vulnerable to flooding.

PFR uses bespoke measures for individual properties – which could include flood resilient doors, self-sealing air bricks, non-return valves in plumbing systems and other practical options such as repointing where mortar is damaged or missing and applying external waterproofing to ground floor walls.

A scheme to deliver PFR to vulnerable communities across the county is in progress with work to be completed by March 2022 and will help to mitigate the significant impacts of flood events. Work in Jacksdale, Ollerton, Cropwell Butler and Tollerton is currently being delivered.

Following the Public Sector Excellence award received by Via East Midlands for its work on Nottinghamshire’s street lighting, the project is set to be accelerated to convert more of the county’s 94,000 streetlights.

Council chiefs say the project has saved almost £10m in energy costs to date.

The next planned work will see 12,000 lanterns upgraded to LED’s in Gedling and Rushcliffe.