I should be grateful if you would send me a copy of your current policy with regard to the improvement of B roads in the county of Devon.
What plans do you have to improve a road system which has hardly changed since the nineteenth century in order to make it fit for the twenty-first century?
The A and B road network in Devon consists of over 1,000 miles of road connecting our Market Towns and Villages. Much of the ‘B’ road network is narrow in places, where it is difficult for two cars to pass. Our capital allocation for improvements to this network is very small which is spread thinly over a number key projects as set out in our Transport Infrastructure Plan. All the major improvement schemes are dependent on government grants and often in combination with contributions from new development, such as housing.
In the current financial and environmental context, it is most unlikely that the County Council will be delivering improvements to the ‘B’ road network over and above the County’s existing maintenance regime to manage the condition of the ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ class roads. More details can be found in our June 2021 Cabinet report. There has been one improvement in recent years which was fully funded by a development. The County Council has declared a Climate Emergency which would lead to difficulties with progressing a scheme of this kind. A thorough cost benefit analysis would need to be demonstrated and a number of audits completed, with an environmental audit likely to be a key one for the rural ‘B’ road network.