Residents are desperate for more investment in roads, yet Surrey fails to spend £5 million of its allocation.

6.54.19pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 31st Jul 2007

Yes, but we saved £325k on the TCC!

The financial out-turn for 2006/7 was revealed at the Transport Select Committee recently. All County Councillors know that the poor state of Surrey's roads is the number one bone of contention for local residents. So the members of the committee were stunned to be told that last year was the third year in succession when the budget was under-spent by the Tory executive, this time by £5.2 million!

The excuse given for most of the under-spend was "a loss of key design staff and vacancies". Surely this is not the same Tory-run council that spent most of last year cutting the staff of the highways department by a third and paying out millions of pounds in redundancy under BDR?

Lib Dem transport spokesman John Doran said, "You couldn't make this up. It is beyond satire, new bridge schemes have slipped for the second year and important road improvements for Waverley, Woking, Elmbridge, Mole Valley and Surrey Heath have not been delivered."

"Never mind though, we saved £325k on the set up of the TCC!" (see link to "Lib Dems Call for Urgency in Transport Coordination").

"If the Council had got its act together and saved nearly £5m on the TCC - and it had managed to spend the money it should have done - then a total of £10 million more could have been spent on Surrey's creaking transport infrastructure. And all without charging a single penny of extra Council Tax!"

Related Link:

Lib Dems Call for Urgency in Transport Coordination