Why some Flintshire roads may wait 247 years to be resurfaced
Unclassified residential streets in Flintshire can expect to be resurfaced once every 247 years according to a new report.
The 2025 Highway Asset Annual Status Report – presented to Flintshire County Council’s Cabinet on Tuesday – highlighted significant underfunding of Flintshire’s road network.
Overall Flintshire’s road network requires £48 million of funding just to meet the backlog of repairs and resurfacing work that has built up according to the report.
One of the most stark findings was that, based on roadworks over the last five years, unclassified roads would be waiting centuries to be resurfaced.
There are 688km of unclassified roads in Flintshire. They are mostly residential streets branching off the main arterial roads.
The report also noted that overall county roads are resurfaced once every 89 years, based on the last decade of roadworks. Over the same 10-year period, Flintshire has never been able to invest enough money to maintain the quality of road surfaces despite committing £1 million per year to repair work.
Currently the authority’s backlog of roadworks includes £23 million of resurfacing work, £10m of surface treatment £6m of road patching and £9m of minor defects in need of repair.
Flintshire’s Chief Officer of Streetscene and Transportation Katy Wilby noted some concerns raised by Environment and Economy Overview and Scrutiny Committee about the need for more highways funding.
“The committee noted that the Local Government Borrowing Initiative funding (which provided an extra £10m for road repairs) received from the Welsh Government was welcome as it was critical to maintaining the network,” she said.
“But members recognised it was still not sufficient to maintain the steady state of the current conditions.”
Cabinet Member for Environment, Regeneration, Countryside and Tourism, Cllr Chris Dolphin, said the issue was an historic problem.
“This cabinet and this council knows that Flintshire is not funded correctly,” he said. “It hasn’t been funded like other councils in Wales for decades.
“One of the things that is underfunded is roads. The people out there in the county and Government need to recognise Flintshire is extremely underfunded.
“That’s why things have deteriorated. We do very well to stretch the money as far as we do but we have to stretch it a lot further than others do, a lot further than Denbighshire do for instance.
“When there’s money guaranteed for a National Park at some stage – and as much money as you want because there’s no figures with it – if that money isn’t spent on a National Park where’s it going?
“Flintshire still wants money here. I sympathise with those living on unadopted roads because you’re going to wait 247 years for those to be resurfaced.
“It all comes back to money.”
Council Leader Cllr Dave Hughes said that the authority was working to try to secure additional funding.
“We are doing our damndest,” he said. “We’re going down on Thursday (to Welsh Government) to see if we can get more money out of them but it’s not easy.”
There were also concerns over the ongoing cost to the council of maintaining highways structures including the Flintshire Bridge.
The cable-stayed bridge, which opened in 1998, will be 28 years old in March. Councillors argued that – as the bridge is considered a trunk road – the ongoing costs of maintenance should be passed back to the Welsh Government.
Flintshire is in the middle of a £1.8 million maintenance funding period in which the authority is responsible for the upkeep of the bridge. According to the report this year the Flintshire Bridge has undergone £2,630 of repairs.
But there are concerns that figure will increase as the bridge ages and is hit by inclement weather.
Across the county there is a £567,000 backlog of repairs and maintenance of highways structures such as bridges, retaining walls, footbridges and culverts.
This includes 52 bridges classed as in ‘poor’ condition and two rated ‘very poor’.
Deputy Leader of Flintshire County Council and Cabinet Member for Transformation Cllr Richard Jones said: “The Flintshire Bridge is of particular interest to us all.
“Over 10 years it will cost us about £1.8 million in repairs and maintenance.
“It’s treated very differently to a lot of bridges in Wales – and a lot of bridges in North Wales.
“Ours we have to pay for ourselves while others are paid for by Welsh Government. I think that’s an unfair pressure on us as a council.”
Cllr Ted Palmer, Cabinet Member for Highways, Assets and Public Protection agreed.
“It is a risk going forward and I think it’s going to become a bigger risk,” he said.
“I would seek support of the Cabinet to write a letter to the Welsh Government to lobby for either more money or for them to take over the bridge as a trunk road.”
Cabinet granted that permission as it noted the findings of the report.
By Alec Doyle – Local Democracy Reporter
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