ST HELENS Council has revealed the roads it plans to spend £1.8 million on repairing in the coming months.

The state of the borough's roads has been highlighted by the Star and our readers throughout this year. 

The council says poor weather conditions has made potholes worse this year and has lamented a long-term lack of investment is having on road infrastructures.

Now an investigation into road repairs in the UK by Accident Claims Advice - set up following an influx of inquiries relating to damages caused by potholes and poorly maintained roads - has highlighted areas of St Helens in line to be repaired.

Data obtained from Freedom of Information requests reveals St Helens Council currently has around 29 carriageway and resurfacing schemes planned for this year so far. The council has since supplied details of other improvements which will take place.

The rest of the repairs will be announced once the locations are finalised.

During this financial year, which runs from April 2024 to March 2025, St Helens Council has budgeted £1.86 million to maintain roads.

It has also allocated a further £810,000 specifically to tackle the district’s potholes.

Accident Claims Advice warned that motorists "injured by a pothole on a public highway that was known about but not rectified quickly" could take legal action against local authority.

In a statement they said: "With UK councils now facing a potential major financial crisis with a £4bn funding gap estimated in the next two years, some authorities have forked out huge amounts in road maintenance repairs."

The council's response

In a statement, setting out its position, a St Helens Borough Council spokesperson said: “St Helens Borough Council’s highway infrastructure network is the most valuable asset the council has responsibility for, with a replacement value in excess of £1.8bn.

"We manage more than 780km of carriageway and 891km of footways as well as many other types of assets.

"Maintaining and improving the network to an acceptable standard is essential, not only to provide safe and resilient links for people to travel around our borough and support growth but also to provide a suitable environment in which people can safely live, work and visit.

“We know the highway network plays a crucial role in supporting the Borough Strategy vision of working together for a better borough and doing that well also supports the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority (LCRCA) transport priorities of Growth, Low Carbon and Access to Opportunity.

“The strategy reflects the principles of ‘Well Managed Highway Infrastructure: A Code of Practice’ – a guidance document supported, endorsed, and recommended by the Department for Transport, which consider the whole life of the work on our highways allowing for advance planning to secure greater efficiency and value for money.

"This allows us to make intelligent investment decisions and helps us to bid for external funding to support our investment programme. 

"Investment our highways is guided by condition data, inspection data, accident data and customer enquiries, which also helps us to defend against any insurance claims. 

"This year we will invest £1.8m into our programme and we have also been able to secure £810k on pothole repairs which have worsened due to the bad weather conditions this winter.

"However it is still not enough and Full Council recently agreed a motion highlighting the impact that a lack of long- term investment is having on the infrastructure of our borough.”

Here is a list of roads St Helens Council is set to work on in the coming months:

 

Garswood Road

Newton Road

Roby Well Way

Frodsham Drive 

Cranshaw Avenue/ Abbots Field Road/ Finch Close

Farndon Avenue

Shakespeare Road

Union Bank Lane

Bridge Road

Barrowfield Road

Gorsey Croft 

Houghtons Lane

Portico Lane

Seddon Road

Cannon Wilson Close/ Gray Avenue/ Case Road 

Haydock Lane

Taylor Road

Tyrer Road

Wargrave Road

Fleet Lane 

Swan Avenue

Vincent Road

Robins Lane 

Nutgrove Road

St Georges Avenue/ Prince Andrews Grove/ The Grove

North Florida Road

Moss Bank Road

Poynter Street

Borough Road (Enfield Street - Alexander Drive), Town Centre.

Hard Lane

Chain Lane

Hinckley Road

Helena Road

Bold Street

Canal Street