CHESHIRE West and Chester Council has spent a massive £37m on maintaining roads across the borough – in just three years.

Environment executive member Cllr Lynn Riley detailed the costs of ‘responding to public priorities’ to fellow members at a meeting of the full council.

Answering a question from Winsford member Lynda Jones, she revealed that since 2010, a total of £70.8m had been spent on every aspect of the highway network ranging from structural and preventive work to winter gritting and verge cutting.

And since the year following Local Government Reorganisation, the authority has treated 444kms or 275.8 miles – 19.3% – of the roads in West Cheshire.

Cllr Riley said: “The council has continued to invest significantly in our network with the clear priority that residents place on the condition of our roads and pavements. The approach is starting to pay dividends and we are seeing reductions in demand for emergency repairs.”

In the national alarm survey, which shows the average percentages of network in poor structural condition, Cheshire West and Chester is scored at 10%, less than half the English national average of 21%.

Cllr Riley reported the year after local government reorganisation, £6.8m was spent on highways and the following year, in the new council’s first budget, £12m was allocated.

In 2009 17km of the network was resurfaced and 33km dressed. Since the start of the council’s asset recovery programme in 2010 a further 117km had been fully resurface and 327km had received preventative treatments like surface dressing.