PAT GLASS MP North West Durham H OUS E OF COMMONS Mr John Reed LONDON SW I A OAA Head of Technical Services Durham County Council County Hall Durham DH1 5 UL 22 March 2017 Dear John, Local Highways Maintenance Challenge Fund Thank you for contacting me regarding Durham County Council's intention to bid for funding for local highway maintenance. As the largest rural authority in the country, Durham County Council faces a unique challenge in maintaining our highways against a backdrop of budget cuts and Brexit, which is seeing the North East transition into a commuter region with work concentrated in our larger cities like Durham and Newcastle, increasing the volume of traffic on the local 'A' roads and speeding up deterioration. This places an increasing burden on you as a financially constrained local authority to maintain and upgrade roads across a large distance throughout the region. As I know you are very aware, this responsibility comes at a great financial cost, therefore I was pleased to be informed of your impending bid for funding as I think the end use for this funding is extremely important. The roads you have selected are strategically chosen to cover a wide area that will offer value for money. Durham County Council will be able to upgrade very well-used, albeit remote, roads that otherwise might struggle to get the attention and repairs they need. As both a local MP and as a Shadow Transport Minister, I fully support your bid and hope it is successful. I am confident when the bid assessors visit the area they will see that these roads are suitable for their investment and will help keep the roads safe as our local residents travel to and from their place of work. Yours sincerely, Pat Glass MP Shadow Minister for Transport 1 Gledstone House, 26 Newmarket Street, Consett, County Durham DH8 5LQ Tel: 01207 501782 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.patglassmp.org.uk Chris Coles From: Kevan Jones MP <[email protected]> Sent: 28 March 2017 14:15 To: John Reed Subject: Letter of Support Dear John Thank you for your email. I fully support the Durham County Council's bid for funding from the Department for Transport. I receive a lot of correspondence from constituents who are concerned about the state of roads in the area and welcome any additional support to help the Council tackle these problems. I am pleased that the bid includes funding to resurface parts of the A693 as this is one of the busiest roads in my constituency. Please do not hesitate to contact me if I can be of any further assistance. Best wishes Kevan Kevan Jones Member of Parliament for North Durham 1 Chris Coles From: NIXON, Clair <[email protected]> Sent: 30 March 2017 10:12 To: John Reed Subject: Funding bid A68 I fully support Durham County Council’s application for funding for resurfacing work on the A68 which runs through my Bishop Auckland Constituency. Yours sincerely, Helen Goodman Member of Parliament for Bishop Auckland UK Parliament Disclaimer: This e-mail is confidential to the intended recipient. If you have received it in error, please notify the sender and delete it from your system. Any unauthorised use, disclosure, or copying is not permitted. This e-mail has been checked for viruses, but no liability is accepted for any damage caused by any virus transmitted by this e-mail. This e-mail address is not secure, is not encrypted and should not be used for sensitive data. 1 Chris Coles From: RIPPIN, Nicholas <[email protected]> Sent: 28 March 2017 11:16 To: John Reed; Claire Barry Subject: Department for Transport - Local Highways Maintenance Challenge Fund Dear John I am writing to you with regard to the above named highways maintenance fund. I understand Durham County Council will be preparing a bid to access this fund. I would like to take this opportunity to outline my full support for Durham County Council’s bid to access these funds, particularly for the schemes that fall within the City of Durham constituency. Durham City Centre sees a significant amount of traffic travelling through the city every day, and it is vital that the roads in these highly congested areas of the county are maintained to the highest possible standard. The roads identified within the bid in Durham City are in in need of resurfacing work, and are extremely busy, well used roads. Ensuring that they are maintained will have the greatest impact on Durham City, and ensure the high volume of traffic travelling through the constituency is using roads that are fit for purpose. As the major economic centre for the county, this will ensure that the main access roads to the city centre are in a condition suitable for the high volume of traffic that uses them, visitors to the city are able to use high quality, clearly marked out lanes, and local residents will benefit from the improved environmental repairs on a number of deteriorating roads. I hope this information is sufficient for the application for funds, but should you require any further information, please do not hesitate to get back to me. Best wishes Roberta Blackman-Woods MP for the City of Durham Tel: 0191 3741915 Sent from the inbox of Nick Rippin UK Parliament Disclaimer: This e-mail is confidential to the intended recipient. If you have received it in error, please notify the sender and delete it from your system. Any unauthorised use, disclosure, or copying is not permitted. This e-mail has been checked for viruses, but no liability is accepted for any damage caused by any virus transmitted by this e-mail. This e-mail address is not secure, is not encrypted and should not be used for sensitive data. 1 .