Vol. 483 No. 3
74 Mr. Shatter asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government the proposals, if any, he has to maintain or improve the level of funding available for the maintenance of county roads as envisaged in An Action Programme for the Millennium; the action, if any, he has taken to date in this regard; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16312/97]
I fully intend to honour the Government's commitment to ensure increased funding for the maintenance of regional and county roads. On taking office, I immediately announced an additional allocation of £5 million for the maintenance of Class 3 county roads. More recently, abridged Estimates for 1998 provide a record amount of nearly £199 million for non-national roads; this represents an increase of over £26 million or 15 per cent on the original 1997 allocation of nearly £173 million. Non-national road grant allocations to individual local authorities will be announced as early as possible in 1998.
