Hampshire County Council (HCC) have a £132 million headache. Years of Conservative central government and a Conservative led HCC have resulted in a ballooning National Debt, and a looming financial disaster for Hampshire. As the National Debt approaches 100% of GDP after years of economic mismanagement by the Conservatives, HCC are staring at a disastrous projected shortfall in the County's 2025/26 budget.
HCC's responsibilities cover important areas of public expenditure including Schools, adult and children's social care, and a wide range of environmental services; all of which are major concerns for Liberal Democrats.
There are few clearer indicators however of the poor health of our County's finances than the state of our roads. HCC are responsible for road maintenance across the County. Next financial year HCC are proposing to cut their contribution to the Planned Highway Maintenance budget by an eye-watering 26%, from £28.6 to £21.1 million.
The much heralded Government Network North project, which is supposedly ‘transforming British transport’ is instead being used as an excuse by Hampshire to cut spending. Network North boldly proclaims: ‘We will fix potholes. We will spend an additional £2.8 billion resurfacing roads in East, South East and South West England, ending the scourge of potholes in our towns and cities.’ (para 73).
Instead HCC are gambling that the unconfirmed additional funding they hope to receive under this scheme will cover their own road maintenance spending cuts. In HCC's Proposal they recognise that far from improving the condition of the roads, their proposals will mean that 'larger-scale structural repairs, road surface treatment programmes, and drainage improvements would generally only be carried out when major or widespread defects are identified' and that ‘Hampshire’s highway network would become less resilient to the impacts of winter weather and traffic.’ The additional spending of Network North is totally illusory in Hampshire.
HCC and the Government are combining in an attempt to pull the wool over the voters eyes. The potholes tell the truth.
Years of financial mismanagement by the HCC Conservative administration have left Hampshire's budget in a perilous state, with the imminent prospect of deep and damaging cuts now having to be made to important services.
Conservative Council plans to close Hartley Wintney HWRC once again blocked by united local opposition.
