INTRODUCING toll roads might be the only way to counter the £15million+ a year not being spent the network, according to a senior Devon County Councillor.

Councillor Julian Brazil, Kingsbridge and Stokenham, has said that Devon’s roads need £60million a year spent on them in order to maintain them at their current level, but under the Conservative government and the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition, only £40-45million a year has been spent, meaning the road network is getting £15-20million worse every year.

Devon has 12,800km of roads, more than 95 countries, in just one county, and due to the central Government cuts, the council doesn’t have the budget to cover the cost of maintaining the roads.

‘Its getting to the point where we have to consider other options, its unsustainable’ said Cllr Brazil, ‘whether that be toll roads or doubling the council tax for second homes. With devolution process, we may be able to find more opportunities for revenue.

‘We will have to seriously look at the option of road tolls or similar if we want to keep the roads or they will crumble. We need a serious debate about it, or the Government could just give us the money we need.

‘Up to £80billion is being spent on infrastructure with HS2 [the high speed rail connection between London, Leeds and Manchester], and we’re the poor relative. It would be nice to get some of that money down here’.

Surveys of the condition of Devon’s A and B roads show that they are in good condition with only about 2 per cent of those roads in need of repair. The picture is different for some C and unclassified roads, with the latest information showing that about 23 per cent of the unclassified roads in Devon are in need of repair.

Read more in the Kingsbridge & Salcombe Gazette