Bridgend County Council is facing a £44m carriageway maintenance backlog, with around £3.35m needed each year just to keep roads in their current steady state, a report has revealed.
The report, presented to members of a council scrutiny committee, set out how the local authority manages its road resurfacing programme and the nearly £1bn-worth of highway assets across the county, including 880km of carriageways.
Funding needed for improvements
Officers said that with an "unprecedented rise in inflation" and annual deterioration of the carriageway, around £3.35m would be needed each year to maintain roads in their current "steady state".
However, they added that this investment would need to be raised to around £5-6m each year to make real improvements to the network. An independent survey in 2023 identified the carriageway maintenance backlog of £44m.
Impact of budget prioritisation
The report said: "Successive years of austerity and competing council priorities has influenced the level of highway maintenance that can be delivered."
It added: "The unintended consequence of budget prioritisation has resulted in a focus on maintaining the core road network of the borough that carry large volumes of vehicles, including heavy goods vehicles, buses and commuter traffic, which accounts for 31% of the network.
"The remaining 69% relates to the unclassified network of local streets and rural roads, which deteriorate at a lesser rate, due to being less trafficked by vehicles such as HGVs, but nevertheless are in need to intervention and exist within a backlog of streets to be addressed."
There are currently around 1,000 Bridgend streets listed on the works register, with about 25 being added each year.
Spending and comparisons
Details presented to councillors showed that £29m of revenue and capital funding had been spent on the highway network in the borough since 2018, with improved conditions as a result.
Councillor Eugene Caparros, cabinet member for communities and the environment, said while there was excellent work being done to resurface roads, with significant improvements made, it could take many years to resolve all the problems that austerity had brought.
Officers said the authority was performing well compared with other parts of Wales, with only 13% of the network considered to be in the red category, meaning in poor condition or in need of maintenance.
Councillor Martin Williams raised concerns that this figure did not represent people's lived experience of the highway network, while councillor Owain Clatworthy said the council should apologise to residents for underinvestment in the roads, which he described as a disgrace.
Bridgend County Borough Council is responsible for around 880km of carriageways, including 188km of A-roads and 425km of unclassified roads, alongside 483 highway structures, including 101 road bridges, 26,000 drainage gullies, and 888km of footway. The report came just weeks after Carmarthenshire council reported an estimated maintenance backlog of at least £77m.
