BOLTON’S crumbling roads need £33.6 million to bring them up to an acceptable standard, a report has revealed.

Figures also show the borough’s entire infrastructure — highways, pavements, bridges, street lights and cycle paths — needs a £76 million investment. Bolton Council spends its Government allocation for highways — about £10 million a year — ensuring conditions for motorists and pedestrians to do not deteriorate further.

But it is struggling to make improvements because of a budget shortage.

The £33.6 million is broken down into £13.6 million for main arterial routes and £20 million for the remaining major and residential roads.

In a bid to get Bolton moving in the right direction again, The Bolton News is today calling on the Government to find the £13.6 million need for the most urgent repairs.

Over the next six weeks we will feature some of the worst roads in the borough, collect signatures for a petition backing our call and invite Bolton’s residents to add roads of shame to an online map Ian Savage, Editor-in-chief of The Bolton News, said: “Everyone is affected by the state of Bolton’s roads, either as a driver, a passenger, or a cyclist. Bolton is a thriving place with an exciting future, but unless the infrastructure is brought up to scratch, despite the millions in investment, the town will struggle to fulfil its potential.”

The council’s comprehensive audit, a Highways Asset Management Plan (HAMP), reveals that, in addition to the £13 million needed for arterial routes, the council has to find: l Almost £20 million to repair the borough’s other major and residential roads.

l More than £18 million to tackle the problems facing pedestrians who use the Bolton’s 1,545km of pavements and cycleways each year.

l A further £26 million to bring street lighting, structures — such as bridges — and public rights of way back to a reasonable standard.

A lack of investment over the past decade, due mainly to necessary budget cuts and a decrease in the grants authorities receive from the Government, has left the council with an eight-year backlog of works.

And the problem does not stop there.

The current depreciation level — the rate by which roads, footpaths and cycleways decline in quality — is valued at more than £11 million per year and is set to worsen this year due to the bad winter weather which has affected the roads, compounding the misery for users.

Coupled with the council’s £10 million investment, this means conditions are getting worse, despite the best efforts of council highways teams.

And Bolton is not alone in its plight and experts claim that £2 billion is needed nationwide to bring the local road network up to a decent standard.

Campaigners are angry that despite collecting about £28 billion in taxes from motorists, the Government allocates just £5 billion for the whole road network, of which only £628 million is given to local authorities to maintain local roads.

Cllr Nick Peel, Bolton Council’s executive member for environmental services, said: “I think we are working more effectively and trying to carry out repairs in a better way, which will extend the life of the roads or footpaths. If we do that, it will allow us to invest some of the money into chipping away at the backlog we have.

“The surface treatment methods we use now are a lot better than they have been previously and that means we can extend the life of a stretch of road for a fraction of the cost of a full reconstruction. That said, we wouldn’t turn down any extra help in terms of funding because in the past, the money has been spent on other services which were seen are higher priorities.”

Peter Molyneux, the council’s assistant director of highways and engineering, said “We have a big challenge ahead and we know that. We don’t want to be too negative about it but we do acknowledge that there is a problem.”