Channon warns Road misers
Page 7
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
• Transport Secretary Paul Channon plans to penalise local authorities which fail to maintain their roads. He claims they are holding back £148 million of government money that was allocated for road repairs.
In a thinly-veiled threat, Channon warned the Association of County Council's Transportation Conference: "If there is no indication that the underspend will be considerably reduced, we will have to look with you and the other associations at ways to ensure that maintenance is spent appropriately."
Channon's comment brought a swift response from the Association of County Councils. ACC chairman Paul Harford says: "The threat by Government. . . would be resisted by the ACC as unnecessary centralisation_ Direction from central government about local spending plans would be an inflexible, unresponsive and wasteful use of resources".