OXFORDSHIRE’S worst roads will no longer be given priority when it comes to repairs as the county council admits it is “managing a decline”.

And it has warned over the next decade we’ll see the number of kilometres of roads in need of critical repair double.

The council has said it doesn’t have enough money to get to the bottom of the county’s pothole problem and it says budget cuts mean that resurfacing all of the county’s roads would only be complete once every 255 years.

It has changed the system which means that money will be diverted away from roads classified as ‘red’ – in need of urgent repair – and will instead be spent on roads which are classed as ‘high amber’ or in need of less urgent maintenance.

There are currently 57km (or 35 miles) of Oxfordshire roads labelled red. Under the new system this is expected to rise to 107km (66 miles) in 10 years.

But the council says this new approach will lead to the amount of road classed as being in good condition increase from 565km (350 miles) to 697km (433 miles) – twice as much as under the current system.

Cuts from the Government has meant that councils across the UK have less money to tackle potholes.

How Oxfordshire County Council grades roads according to their state of repair:

  • Red – In need of urgent maintenance
  •  High amber – Roads that will become red in four years
  • Amber – Roads that will become red within four to nine years
  • Green – Roads in a good state of repair
  • The five worst roads in the county are:
  • London Road, Headington
  • Park End Street, Oxford Station Road, Didcot
  • West Bar Street, Banbury
  • Fane Drive, Berinsfield

County councillor David Nimmo Smith, the cabinet membfor transport, estimates that it would need £160m to bring every mile of road in Oxfordshire up to scratch.

He said: “No council in the UK has enough money to maintain its roads to a high condition. That is clear. We are all managing a decline.

“In light of that national picture we could have proposed a policy of putting all of our eggs in one basket and spending all of our highways cash on roads in the poorest condition.

“We don’t want to put what money we will have available in to a ‘worst first’ policy of road repairs. That would lead to the overall condition of the roads being much worse than our proposed focus across the whole network.”

In 2014/15 the county council – which is responsible for 1,195km of classified roads – will have £6.4m available for repairing potholes and this will decrease to £5.9m by 2017/18.

It estimates there are currently around 600 unrepaired potholes in Oxfordshire.

One of the county’s roads which has the most amount of red surface is Fane Drive in Berinsfield.

Annette Loveland, Berinsfield Parish Council’s clerk, said: “As with any road in the county there are issues but Fane Drive is the main road around the village so it gets more traffic.

“I think any resident or parish council would be concerned if they were to stop repairing some potholes.”

James Styring, the former chairman of Cyclox, said: “Maybe they should focus on roads with the highest cycling rates because cyclists will be the people most affected by this decision.”

Labour county councillor John Sanders, shadow cabinet member for transport, said the answer was to get more money from the Government.

He said: “The problem is that however you run it there is not the money and we are trying to bail out a lifeboat with a thimble.”

The county council has stressed that it will still fix potholes which are reported and that only 11 per cent of its road surface is classed as being in poor condition, below the national average of 18 per cent.

Ben Duckworth, a spokesman for the Department for Transport, said: “Local highways maintenance in Oxfordshire is entirely a matter for the county council and they need to consider their needs and priorities.

“The Department has provided the council with over £66.9m since 2011 to help repair the roads they are responsible for.”

Oxfordshire County Council has a duty under the Highways Act 1980 to maintain the roads across the county.

Drivers who feel that the council has failed in its duty, and who have suffered personal injury or damage to their property as a result, can claim compensation.

In defending itself against a claim, the county council can say it has taken care to make sure the highway isn’t dangerous, that it couldn’t reasonably have repaired the highway before the damage happened and that it did not reasonably know about the condition of that particular section of road.

A claim form can be downloaded from the county council’s website – oxfordshire.gov.uk. Claims can take up to three months to be processed.

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