Bury Council plans £12.9m on roads, pavements and bridges, £6.6m of it resurfacing. It names four crossings and two bridges but not one road to be resurfaced.
Bury Council plans to spend £12.9 million on roads, pavements, bridges and crossings across the borough. Just over half of it, £6.6 million, is for resurfacing roads.
The council’s Cabinet will be asked to approve the programme on Wednesday 14 October. The report does not say which roads would be resurfaced.
Where the money comes from
The total is £12.917 million, made up of five pots, according to the Cabinet report:
| Funding | 2026/27 |
|---|---|
| City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement (CRSTS), core | £5.797m |
| Mayor’s Pothole Fund | £4.374m |
| CRSTS, Key Route Network | £1.520m |
| Integrated Transport Block (ITB) | £1.113m |
| Network North (left-over HS2 money) | £0.113m |
The £4.374 million from the Mayor’s Pothole Fund is new money. The report calls it “additional funding allocated for highway maintenance and network improvements”.
The two CRSTS sums pay for schemes Cabinet has already approved in earlier reports. The CRSTS settlement runs from 2022/23 to 2026/27, so this is its final year.
How it would be spent
The report’s allocation table splits the money like this:
- £6,585,500 for resurfacing roads
- £1,368,000 for preventative treatments such as surface dressing and micro-asphalt
- £1,253,000 for routine highway maintenance
- £1,160,000 for bridges, culverts and other structures
- £1,113,000 for road safety, from the Integrated Transport Block
- £1,000,000 for pavements
- £220,000 for drainage repairs
- £167,000 for street lighting
- £50,000 for public rights of way
No list of roads
The resurfacing money is the biggest part of the programme. Yet none of the four documents published for the meeting names a road that would be resurfaced.
Instead, the resurfacing appendix sets out how roads are chosen. The council says it uses:
- annual condition surveys and skid resistance tests
- traffic volumes and the road’s place in the network
- collision records
- how many people the road serves
- complaints and councillors’ input
Engineers then check the ranking before a programme is drawn up. The appendix says any “material departure” from the ranking is recorded with the evidence for it.
Cabinet is also asked to let a senior officer and the Cabinet member change the list of works later without going back to Cabinet, as long as the total stays the same.
The report covers the 2026/27 financial year, which ends on 31 March. It says “delivery of some schemes will extend into 2027/28”.
The crossings and safety signs
The road safety list was approved in March and is attached “for information only”. It was approved by Cabinet on 11 March at £543,000, with work due to be finished by March 2027.
| Location | What is planned | Estimated cost |
|---|---|---|
| B6196 Ainsworth Road near Watling Street, Bury | New puffin crossing | £125k |
| B6213 Market Street, Tottington | Zebra crossing replaced with a puffin crossing | £125k |
| A665 Bury Old Road near Kenilworth Avenue, Whitefield | Old pelican crossing upgraded to a puffin | £50k |
| A665 Bury Old Road near Cuckoo Lane, Prestwich | Old pelican crossing upgraded to a puffin | £50k |
| Cecil Street area, Bury | 20mph zone with traffic calming, a school scheme | £75k |
| Chapel Street, Tottington | New flashing speed sign | £5k |
| A665 Bury Old Road near St Monica’s, Prestwich | New flashing speed sign | £5k |
| B6215 Holcombe Road, Greenmount | Worn-out signs replaced | £5k |
| A665 Radcliffe New Road, Radcliffe | Worn-out sign replaced | £5k |
| A56 Manchester Road near Wellington Road, Bury | Worn-out sign replaced | £5k |
| A58 Rochdale Road, Bury | Worn-out sign replaced | £5k |
The rest of the £543,000 is £6,000 for repainting lines and signs and £82,000 in fees. The March report says the schemes target “recognised existing injury collision ‘hotspot’ locations”.
That list accounts for £543,000. The new report puts the whole road safety line at £1.113 million and does not itemise the other £570,000.
Bridges and walls
The structures appendix spreads £1.16 million over two years. Only £315,000 is spent this year and £845,000 in 2027/28. The named jobs are:
- Eagle and Child retaining wall, £460,000 (2027/28). Inspections found the wall bulging and the pavement in front of it “heavily” deformed. The report says the start has been delayed “whilst a legal easement is agreed with the brewery”. It does not say which Eagle and Child.
- Walshaw Bank footbridge, £45,000 (2027/28). A new footbridge with new abutments.
- Woodhill Bridge, £50,000 (2027/28). Repairs to the stone arch bridge, including rebuilding its spandrel walls.
The rest covers design work, subway lighting, protective coatings on steel and small structures.
What it means for you
- If your street is in poor repair, this programme will not tell you whether it is on the list. You can report a pothole to the council, and ask your ward councillor, as the method takes councillors’ input into account.
- If you use the crossings named above, the March report has them finished by March 2027. No start dates have been published.
- The money is separate from the budget gap. The report says the allocations “are within the council’s approved capital programme and there are no additional financial implications”. It comes from the transport funds in the table above, not from the day-to-day budget that has the £9.6m gap for next year.
Cabinet meets at 6pm on Wednesday 14 October. Current closures are on our Bury roadworks and travel page.
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