SIR – Given the county council’s excellent record on pavements it was somewhat surprising that your article on Monday did not give a single fact, just a number of off-the-wall statements from the usual and anonymous left-wingers.
Nonetheless, I can assist your readers with the facts. Worcestershire pavements are the best in the region and, unlike neighbouring counties, their condition is in the top quartile (25 per cent) in the whole country.
In a normal year, we spend about £1.8 million on footways, but this year it has been over three times that at £5.6 million, rising to four times that in the coming year (2021/2) at £7.2 million.
Normally, we have four gangs at work but now it is 12.
Two years ago we completed an extra £6 million programme giving us 50 miles of new/improved pavements, the distance from Worcester to Oxford.
This year we spent an extra £4 million on top of the normal budget completing 215 footway schemes, equating to over 70 kilometres of new/improved pavements, and in the coming year (2020/21) we are again spending another £4 million on top of the normal budget to do over 250 footway schemes, equal to 85 kilometres.
My own Division of Bedwardine has seen the biggest-ever pavement improvement programme with over 50 schemes done since 2017, and that record will be repeated throughout the city and county.
Literally, people can see the facts on the ground for themselves.
Cllr Alan Amos
Cabinet Member for Highways
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