HUNDREDS of millions of pounds would be needed to fix Hampshire’s ‘declining’ road network.

Hampshire County Council officers say the backlog of road maintenance would cost £377m to clear.

It comes as the county council put forward it’s highway network recovery strategy, which aims to transform how highway maintenance is handled in the future.

Highways project engineer, Peter Rooney, said: ‘Our highway network has gone through a period of rapid decline in recent years, due to a lack of maintenance work.

‘As a consequence, we are having to undertake reactionary works and cannot do as much of our planned maintenance as we would like.

‘There is a maintenance backlog across the network – we try to do as much as possible but the budget only stretches to a small part of our network each year.’

The 10-year strategy will use an extra £7m per year to try and address the backlog of road maintenance, with policies in place for asset management and cost-effective working.

It is hoped that this will keep Hampshire’s roads in a ‘serviceable’ condition.

Of the aforementioned £377m, an estimated £240m would need to be spent on carriageways themselves, with the rest of the money spilt between footpaths, traffic signals and structures such as barriers and bridges.

At the economy, transport and environment select committee meeting yesterday morning (Thursday, March 10) councillors agreed that this was a necessary step to take.

The meeting’s chairman, Cllr Stephen Philpott, said: ‘We are clearly moving from a reactive scheme to a proactive one.

‘There ware challenges but we will overcome these, and this matter will be kept under constant review.’

Liberal Democrat spokesman for economy, transport and environment, Cllr Martin Tod, added: ‘From our point of view as the opposition, we see this as a well-thought out paper that addresses problems that matter to us all, despite the difficult constraints being put on us.’

The strategy was approved by deputy council leader, Cllr Rob Humby, at the economy, transport and environment decision day yesterday (Thursday, March 10).

He said: ‘The condition of our roads affects all users including cyclists, pedestrians and bus passengers as well as cars, motorcyclists and freight vehicles and it is crucial that the importance of maintaining the local road network is properly recognised.

‘We have been highlighting the deteriorating condition of our road network in the county for some considerable time now and I have repeatedly lobbied government for more funding.

‘Our funding is still far short of what we really need to reverse the declining state of repair on our county roads. ‘