Approval of more than £4 million to be spent on south Wales highways
Lewis Smith, Local Democracy Reporter
Senior councillors have a approved than £4 million to be spent on highway maintenance across in the coming year.
The decision was made at a Neath Port Talbot council cabinet meeting this month, as part of the local authority’s highway’s works programme for the 2025-26 financial year.
Members at the meeting unanimously approved the latest programme worth a total of £4.964 million, which will now be used to cover all aspects of highway maintenance and capital investment in the borough.
Officers said the approval came after a lengthy scrutiny session that took place to look at which schemes would be delivered and which didn’t make the cut, though noted that there was a general support for the plans.
Improvement
They added that they had been “fortunate” this year as they had been able to use Welsh Government supported borrowing that allowed the council to prioritise further schemes for investment.
Some of the spends will now include £1.3 million on strengthening and improvement works to local bridges and structures, £495,000 on drainage improvement works, and more than £2 million on carriageway surface treatments.
The report added: “Distributing available budgets is highly challenging due to the level of investment required to maintain a ‘steady state’. Currently, the shortfall in available budgets has increased due to static investment in the core allocation for the Highways and Engineering Works Programme, coupled with the continuing rise in inflationary pressures. Meanwhile, the need for preventative and essential maintenance of the infrastructure continues to grow.”
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I wonder if this will be enough to finally wash the signs.
Even more road works. Great!
The North Mid and South divide again.
Honestly – you think the “South” gets treated better. As someone living here, allow me to explain – as far as the Senedd is concerned, Wales doesn’t exist past Cardiff West services on the M4 (an even that is considered the distant outer limits). Stick a compass in a map with the Senedd at the centre and the Western edge of Cardiff as your pencil and draw a circle. If you aren’t in it, you don’t exist and being in “The South” really is not going to help at all. NPT council aren’t spending Wales’ money, they are spending their… Read more »
Will £4 million fix the potholes and road decay?
Only on the bits within the designation of the project. When they budget money for a specific spending project and it is approved it can legally only be spent on that project. Since the article suggest that “road decay” is very much within the remit of the project, I’d think it was likely, but I would imagine that specific roads have been designated and only those will be part of this particular spend.