In recent years, the most common issue that comes up on the door step is the poor state of our roads. Residents are fed up with incessant potholes and want to see roads resurfaced at the right time.
One way to improve our roads in Reigate, Redhill, Banstead and our villages would be to remedy an unfairness in the current road funding formula. It’s this formula which determines how much funding is allocated to the local highway authority, Surrey County Council in our case. It currently allocates funding on the basis of road length, and takes no account of traffic volume. This flaw in the formula means that Surrey, which is more than three times busier than some other English counties, doesn’t receive any additional funding to reflect the extra wear and tear suffered.
And that is why in 2022, I launched my ‘fairer road funding’ campaign to request more road funding. Nearly 6000 people signed my petition to reform the road maintenance funding formula, which I hand delivered to No 10. I also raised the issue directly with the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, and the Secretary of State for Transport, Mark Harper, and have made sure that residents’ pleas for better roads have been communicated to decision makers at all available opportunities.
And this week I was delighted to have the opportunity to make that plea directly to Guy Opperman, MP, Minister for Roads and Local transport. We had a very constructive meeting and I was able to share a few ideas of my own. We also spoke about the additional £82.4m of funding allocated to Surrey for improving roads (as a result of the recent HS2 cancellation), and the impact that will have in Reigate, Redhill, Banstead and our villages. This additional funding is a positive step towards getting our roads back into decent condition that I very much welcome. But I did make the point that more is still needed to address the huge backlog. I will continue to push for the funding needed to fix our roads.
