GLOUCESTERSHIRE Liberal Democrats are calling for a dedicated pot of money to fix the county's pavements and footways.

Highways bosses have a limited budget to sort out big pavement issues, but have no money specifically targeted at maintaining ongoing problems like cracked pavements and uneven surfaces.

At the county council meeting which will take place on Wednesday, December 7, leader of the Liberal Democrat group, Cllr Paul Hodgkinson, will be asking for more to be done to fix the county's pavements.

He said: “There are many damaged pavements in need of repair. People are regularly tripping over and complaining about the state of the footways in towns and villages – in some cases you can’t even walk along them because they are covered in grass or weeds.

As a councillor I’ve had to ask and ask again to simply bring overgrown and cracked pavements back into use – this can’t be right.

“The bottom line is that we need more money for our pavements, but we also need to separate them from our roads in order to see how best they can be maintained.

"I can't see any reason why this council could not therefore create a dedicated pot of money specifically for pavement and footway repairs that is separate from roads.

"The Conservatives have neglected this after 12 years in power and need to step up to the plate to fix our broken pavements.

“I really don’t think this is a contentious ask and I hope it receives cross-party support at the next council meeting this month.” 

Shadow Cabinet Member for highways and floods, Cllr Chris Coleman, who will be supporting the motion, added:  “We believe that a dedicated revenue budget specifically for pavements is the way forward to making sure they get repaired.

“If a dedicated budget was introduced it would then be easier for us as residents to see exactly how much or realistically how little is being spent on pavements in a particular area across the county. 

“It is essential especially given the current weather conditions and predictions of a cold winter that pavements along with the county roads are properly repaired and well maintained.” 

Cllr Vernon Smith, cabinet member for highways, commented: "We fix roads and pavements from the same pot of money, depending on what needs fixing first.

"Dedicating part of it to pavements would mean less flexibility and less money to fix potholes. The Lib Dems are also using figures they know exclude the vast majority of money the council spends on repairing pavements, which is pretty cynical.

"Why can't the Lib Dems just be straight with people?"