Rural England under attack, says councillor

Sarah-May Buccieri

BBC News

• Published19 December 2024

The boss of highways at Lincolnshire County Council says he is “frustrated” at a lack of funding for roads.

Councillor Richard Davies claimed “rural authorities” are being given less money from central government.

“We are seeing a consistent attack on rural England from a very urban centric government,” he said.

In response, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said it is “determined to deliver fairer funding”, which it said would end “postcode lotteries” ensuring “everyone gets the support from public services they deserve”.

Davies said he believes the council manages its budget efficiently but he criticised funding priorities from central government.

He pointed out that Lincolnshire contains a large number of rural roads.

“They aren’t sexy dual carriageways and motorways that ministers like to sit in front of and have their photograph taken in very shiny high vis jackets that have never been worn for much else,” said Davies.

He admitted managing funding can be “frustrating” but said he wanted to “assure people we are not afraid of making difficult decisions”.

In The Hotseat on BBC Radio Lincolnshire and BBC Sounds, presenter Frances Finn asked the councillor about a variety of topics.

When asked why some roads “feel like a rollercoaster” in Lincolnshire, Davies said the authority had to strike a balance between demand and usage.

“We don’t have resources to have hundreds of people looking to do repairs as and when we need to,” he said.

“As a county council we have competing needs.”

Quizzed about dangerous junctions in the county, Davies said the authority “can’t just spend millions of pounds” and “rush decisions”.

One caller told Davies they believed the county’s roads were a “disgrace” and “hazardous” and asked why some roads do not get sufficient money spent on them.

Davies replied: “As a nation we don’t invest enough as infrastructure, it is a constant source of frustration.”

Davies urged also people to use the Fix My Street, external website to report problems.

“We don’t always know about all the problems on our road,” he said.

“It’s a really good way to feed back to people.”