Council spending 18 times more on Calderdale's roads than nearly 10 years ago
Council capital spending on maintaining Calderdale’s principal roads in recent years is as much as 18 times higher than almost a decade ago.
Figures published by Calderdale Council show that while £1.233m was spent on maintaining the borough’s principal roads nearly ten years ago, that had increased to £18.12m in 2023-24 and £18.89m in 2024-25.
Rather than a steadily increasing rate, the council’s capital spending on principal roads has fluctuated over the years since 2018-19.
In 2019-20, £3.35m was spent, while in 2020-21 that increased to £8.6m.
Coming out of the pandemic period, 2021-22 saw £7.1m spent, but in 2022-23 only £1.26m of capital spending was allocated.
That increased dramatically to £18.1m in 2023-24 and increased to £18.89m in 2024-25.
Each of those years also saw sums spent on structurally maintaining Calderdale’s principal roads from the council’s revenue – day-to-day spending – budgets, reflecting the need to undertake works which were not planned but needed doing.
Largely around the £500,000 mark annually, they range from 2020-21’s £300,000 to 2024-25’s high of £674,000, according to the figures.
Money spent on other roads varies more, with a low of £22,000 capital programme spending on these roads in 2020-21 to a high of £10m in 2024-25.