Over £15 million is set to be invested in Calderdale’s highways network over the next two years, with the proposed work plan being considered by the Council’s Cabinet.
Well-maintained highways and high-quality infrastructure are key for road safety and in encouraging the use of active travel methods, supporting the Council’s carbon reduction ambitions.
The Highways Capital Maintenance programme report, which will be considered by Cabinet, sets out the planned highways projects for 2025/26 and 2026/27. The report outlines the different sources of funding which the Council has received and how the money will be allocated to improve the highways network.
The majority of the funding for highways comes from the City Regional Sustainable Transport Settlement (CRSTS) scheme – government funding distributed by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority across all West Yorkshire districts. Each council has their own allocation from the programme, which covers highways and off-highway infrastructure, with Calderdale Council set to receive over £15 million in the next two years.
Almost £12 million of this is planned to be spent on asset management, which includes carriageway maintenance, repairs of structures like bridges and walls andwork across the borough to improve road safety.
Most of the funding earmarked for asset management is due to be spent on carriageway resurfacing, surface dressing/patching and road reconstruction. Over 500 roads across the borough are included in the proposed programme of work for surface dressing, patching or resurfacing over the next two years.
In addition to carriageway maintenance, the Council is also responsible for almost 300 highway structures, including bridges, large culverts, subways and highway walls. The programme also includes survey work at locations across the borough as well as repair and reconstruction where necessary.
The report also acknowledges the challenges of managing this extensive network. Across the country, councils face unprecedented demand for planned and reactive highways maintenance, exceeding available funding. Maintaining the condition of the roads in Calderdale continues to be a challenge, with the borough’s topography and vulnerability to adverse weather putting additional pressure on the available funding and network condition.
There has also been a recent significant increase in the number of one-off repairs for structures such as bridges, culverts and retaining walls. These repairs are often extremely expensive, for example it’s estimated that Storm Bert in late November 2024 caused around £6million of damage to the borough’s highways network.
The overall Highways Capital Maintenance Programme will be reviewed throughout the financial year to ensure that it can be contained within the approved budgets.
Calderdale Council’s Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Transport, Cllr Sarah Courtney, said:
“Our highways network is the Council’s largest asset and we do all we can to keep up to the regular maintenance required to keep the borough moving safely.
“The highways maintenance programme guides how and where money is spent and ensures that our limited funding is directed to the most critical areas of the highway network – balancing condition, safety, resilience, and strategic importance. The programme also supports our efforts to take climate action, recognising the importance of quality infrastructure in encouraging active travel and the use of public transport.
“We’re also aware of the challenges of maintaining our extensive road network, and the last year in particular has demonstrated how we can face costly unexpected failures and repairs. We continue to seek additional funding opportunities and align investment with wider infrastructure improvements, doing all we can to avoid unnecessary disruption to the network.”
The Highways Maintenance Programme for 2025/26 and 2026/27 will be discussed at the meeting of Calderdale Council’s Cabinet on Monday 14 April, at Halifax Town Hall from 4pm. The meeting can also be viewed online at https://calderdale.public-i.tv/core/portal/home(external link).
ENDS