ad cuts are m• threat road safety'
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safety is not being ate ed by current levels of rite ance expenditure, ; ransport Secretary Rodgers.
a 'tten reply to a quesfr m MP Alan Williams, "Despite the alleges at have been made ntl nobody has yet preed i e with any objective en e to show that either .ty or basic structural ili y of our roads is at ned," ✓ odgers added that or ay and trunk road it:nance, currently £80m , will rise to £90m in I, hile local road maintee will remain around its e t £470m level.
e added: "In England in i/ 6, the shortfall on ex e expenditure amounted 6.m and in 1976/77 to n. This bears out my view i current circumstances, expenditure levels suggd by the GovernMent are adequate to meet present and foreseeable needs."
A report by an Association of Metropolitan Authorities working party recommends that more attention be given to management control and performance review as vital services, that there be an examination to improve highway maintenance engineering, and that careful consideration be given to relationships between maintenance and design.
It recommends also that a Government review be carried out to study the effects of increasing numbers of vehicles with axle weights exceeding 10 tons.
AMA planning and transportation committee chairman Shelagh Roberts said: "The report reflects the widespread concern about the effects on roads of cuts in maintenance spending which all authorities have been obliged to introduce in recent years."