Cash spread thinly over district footpath repairs (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)
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Cash spread thinly over district footpath repairs
11:35pm Thursday 24th January 2013 in News
By Chris Young, T&A Reporter
Deteriorating footpaths in Keighley, Silsden and Oakworth will soon undergo repairs, but because of limited budgets councillors compared it to putting a plaster on an open wound.
Bradford Council’s Keighley Area Committee met tonight to decide how to spend the £27,000 they have allocated for repair works, despite their list of much needed repair works adding up to almost double that.
It meant that only four out of a possible nine repair works in the Keighley, Ilkley, Haworth and Silsden areas, totalling £49,500 will go ahead this financial year. Even these repairs will only be temporary fixes.
The council’s various area committees are allocated money each year to deal with footpath maintenance, but in the past three years this figure has dropped from £100,000.
Referring to the limited budget – and the extensive works some paths would need to be brought up to scratch, chairman Coun Steve Pullen said: “It is just putting a plaster on it. The same list will be back here next year.”
After some debate, councillors chose to allocate the money to Howden Road in Sislden (£5,000) Low Street in Keighley (£11,000), Lynwood Court in Keighley, (£5,000) and Providence Lane in Oakworth (£6,000).
