Council faces massive bill to maintain city’s roads

Nicholas Thomas, local democracy reporter

A city council has revealed the maintenance backlog for its highways assets is currently estimated to be £118.7 million, including £50 million of road repairs.

Based on anticipated funding levels, the condition of Newport’s roads is forecast to decline steadily in the coming years, and the council has warned current budgets are “not sufficient to maintain the carriageway network in its present condition”.

The focus of the local authority’s new Highway Asset Management Plan 2025/29 is instead to “maintain a declining network so it is safe to be used by all users”, councillors heard on Monday.

Lag

The expected arrival of another £4m in Welsh Government cash, for roads, is likely to ease immediate pressures but the council expects funding to lag well behind the required rate in subsequent years.

“The picture across Wales is the same,” Paul Jones, the council’s strategic director for environment and sustainability, told a council committee. “The money you need to keep [highways infrastructure] as it is isn’t there.

“What we are doing is making sure it is safe – it may not look very good.”

Andrew Brooks, the council’s highways service manager, told councillors the maintenance backlog had increased by around £16 million since 2023.

Maintaining roads to a steady state could require around £2.4 million annually, but the council was expecting to have just £650,000 available each year for planned maintenance from 2025/26, he said.

Other assets – such as footways, bridges and street lights – are also facing their own multimillion-pound backlogs, and require more spending than their forecasted repairs budgets just to maintain a steady state.

Several committee members asked how the council could improve its highways income.

Fixed-penalty notices

Mr Jones said the fixed-penalty notices, such as those issued to drivers for offences captured by the council’s camera vehicle, did provide an income to the highways department, but this was balanced out by spending on the service and its employees.

He also confirmed there were “no plans in Newport” for a congestion zone system, which other councils in the UK have adopted in recent years.

But the city council is continuing to explore the acquisition of civil enforcement powers, which would give it the responsibility for some traffic offences such as bus lane contraventions.

The local authority is currently working on a business case for those powers, the committee heard.

Following a recent cabinet meeting, Cllr Dimitri Batrouni, who leads the city council, said he was hopeful more funding could be committed to highways assets.

He said at the time: “We know that areas such as roads, bus shelters, pavements and other assets are very important.

“I can confirm that we have an additional £4m capital funding from Welsh Government grants to spend in this area, and in June, when further funding and underspends are finalised, we will be adding to this figure.”