Councillors upset to lose their annual road fund

Councillors are calling for the leader of a county council to reverse his decision to scrap an £11,000-a-year pot of funding given to each of its 84 members for local road improvements.

The Highways Local Members Fund had been in place since 2017 at Norfolk County Council - until last month.

David Bick, Reform UK leader of the council, says they can get more "bang for the residents' buck" by using nearly £1m of cash for projects regionally, such as resurfacing and filling potholes.

But councillors remain unconvinced. Among those frustrated is long-serving Thorpe St Andrew Conservative county councillor Ian Mackie, who says the move is "short-sighted".

He said the money had helped deliver numerous road safety improvements, including new pedestrian crossings and speed awareness signs.

This year, he was hoping to fund a feasibility study for traffic improvements outside Hillside Avenue Primary School in Thorpe, following local concern about traffic management.

But he has now been forced to scale the project back.

He said: "This would have been the first stepping stone to have something fundamental done.

"We ae really shocked this money has been withdrawn without any real justification and now it is having an impact on our local communities.

"They have cut their nose to spite their face."

The £11,000 fund was started in 2017 by the Conservatives and it has been used for a range of projects across Norfolk by the 84 elected councillors.

The money is drawn from the council's highways budget, which set its capital budget at £60.8m last year.

In King's Lynn, the fund has also been used to improve safety outside of schools.

Rob Colwell, a Liberal Democrat county councillor for Gaywood South, said one of the first initiatives he used the cash for was to install flashing speed signs outside the King Edward VII Academy.

He pursued this after been approached by the headteacher, who was worried about pupil safety following a crash in 2021 which left a student seriously hurt, Colwell said.

Other uses of the money include paying for bus shelters - where previously there had been none.

"I've used this money for things communities had been calling out for," Colwell said.

"We had found this a really effective tool to improve a whole range of things in our area.

"We believe this is a really petty, small-minded and spiteful cut.

"Reform have got to try and reverse course on this because I just think that local communities are actually going to be the ones that lose out."

Reform UK did not produce a manifesto ahead of the local elections in May, but one of its key pledges was finding new ways to save money.

The party is beginning the budget-setting process for next year and has warned that the council needs to find £36m in cuts and savings.

The council has needed to make savings repeatedly year on year, with £33m of cuts announced in 2025 and £42m agreed this year.

At a recent meeting, Bick said the changes could deliver a 25% increase in value but added the decision could be reviewed if it didn't improve performance on maintaining Norfolk's highways.

Robin Hunter-Clarke, deputy leader, said the decision was "not about taking money away from communities".

"This is about getting better value from the money that we spend," he added.

"We've listened to the experts on this and they're telling us we can actually fix more potholes, more resurfacing across Norfolk, if we do it this way.

"So let's give it a go."

While Reform UK has set its sights on potholes, the council said it was performing well on repairs, with more than 99% completed within target times for the 2025/2026 period.

A spokesperson said: "There is always room for improvement and we continually review how we maintain and repair our roads, so we welcome the recent changes to highways funding, which will provide an additional £924,000 for highway maintenance and pothole repairs in Norfolk."

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