Herefordshire town’s roads are getting better after being left to ‘decay’

Councillor for Ross-on-Wye East Paul Symonds recently shared photos of a resurfaced road that had finally been completed after pushing Herefordshire Council for extra money to improve roads in his area.

But there are indeed other roads in need of attention, he said.

Balfour Beatty, which is Herefordshire Council's roads contractor has a small annual planned maintenance budget from government grants which has been significantly reduced over the last few years, Coun Symonds said.

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Chapel Road, leading to Tudor Street, in Ross-on-Wye. Picture: Paul Symonds

"This means that work must be targeted at roads with highest traffic speed and volume where both risk and wear and tear are greatest," he said.

Coun Symonds, along with fellow councillors for the town Louis Stark and Chris Bartrum, successfully argued that a separate provision needed to be made in the Herefordshire Council's capital budget to tackle side roads which would never get picked up in the annual programme, because they carried relatively little traffic.

Roads in each of the county's market towns are being resurfaced thanks to additional investment of £1.75m.

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Tudor Rise in east Ross-on-Wye. Picture: Paul Symonds

Each of the market towns, including Ross-on-Wye, has £350k allocated for road resurfacing work and other safety improvement schemes, which are set to take place over the coming months.

The schemes will include resurfacing, patching, safety barrier improvements, structural and drainage improvements, vegetation clearance, and white line repair.

Roads yet to be resurfaced - Ryefield Road (left) and Woodland View (right). Picture: Paul Symonds

Works have been competed in Ross-on-Wye with Purland, Springfield Road, the Eastfield Road/Fernbank and Chapel Road/Tudor Street junctions, Tudor Rise, Verschoyle Gardens and Roman Way have all resurfaced.

While the works in Ross-on-Wye were being undertaken, concerns were raised over the condition of the carriageway in some areas and additional work by Balfour Beatty was required to address these concerns, said a spokesperson from Ross-on-Wye Town Council.

Councillor Paul Symonds of Ross East in the newly resurfaced Tudor Rise. Picture: Paul Symonds

This resulted in additional costs, meaning that some areas that had been due to be resurfaced were unable to be included.

Roads still needing work are Woodland View, and Ryefield Road, said Coun Symonds.

"Many of the roads we did this year have not had any maintenance apart from pothole repairs for decades so this will protect the highway from continuing to decay, because the roads carry light traffic, the resurfacing will also last for many years," he said.