TRANSPORT bosses in Dorset fear their biggest ever funding challenges in the wake of the government’s Comprehensive Spending Review.

Road maintenance will take top priority as Dorset, Bournemouth and Poole councils try to keep drivers and users of public transport on the move through tough times.

Andy Ackerman, head of highways and transportation at Dorset County Council, is under no illusions as to the task ahead.

He said: “The scale of savings required will undoubtedly be much bigger than we have seen before. We are currently undertaking a major review to identify unnecessary waste and red tape that can be cut out to create a leaner service that meets local people’s needs more effectively.”

Every project – bar the Weymouth Relief Road, which has secured funding – is under review. Budgets for this year for structural maintenance were already slashed from £9.5 million to £7.9 million, while the local transport plan went from £4.5 million to £2 million.

The routine maintenance budget rose slightly from £9 million to £9.1 million, as a result of councils anticipating things to come – Bournemouth Borough Council brought forward an extra £2.5 million this year to get things done.

Poole’s capital programme was down to £3.5 million from £3.7 million and each council has also suffered in-year reductions, just a taster of things to come next year. The figures are not yet known, but Poole, for example, fears a 50 per cent reduction in cash for projects and 14 per cent for routine work.

Julian McLaughlin, head of transportation services at Borough of Poole, said that part of the network surrounding the new Poole bridge could be delayed if promised funding fails to materialise.

It is not just the roads – Bournemouth has already felt the effects of the new government in other areas. Service director for planning and transport Mike Holmes said: “We were due to have more money from government to improve bus routes, but we lost that as part of the budget reduction.”

The cash would have meant more than £1 million to help start new bus routes. Despite challenges like this, transport bosses say bus usage in the borough has increased by 78 per cent in the last five years.

From now on finding cash from other places, like grants, will become more important, as will increasing efficiency.

Larry Austin, strategic operations manager for street services at Bournemouth, said: “It’s about making the money go further and spending it better. This is where the collaborative working with neighbouring authorities, and using technology so we can get more surfacing done for less money, comes in.”

Dorset council is also thinking along these lines, investing in new technology for road repairs.

The Big Society could come into play too, with the authority relaunching parish maintenance units – or lengthsmen – which allow parish councils and communities to manage small jobs like grass cutting.

The big motoring organisations are clear in what they want.

Professor Stephen Glaister, director of the RAC Foundation, said: “You would be mistaken for thinking politicians regard a high speed rail line between London and Birmingham as the answer to all our transport problems. It is not. HSR is irrelevant to the people of Bournemouth stuck daily on the A338 or A31.

“And if you think congestion in the South West is bad now, it is only set to get worse.’’ AA President Edmund King said: “Questions have to be asked about the size of cuts that will fall on road maintenance, road safety schemes, roads policing and road safety campaigns. If these cuts are made in the wrong places the progress made in recent years may not continue.”

Andy Ackerman added: “We have seen in-year cuts to our grant funding from government, which has affected budgets for road safety, local transport plan improvements and some planned maintenance.’’