Purpose

To
secure Cabinet approval to delegate responsibility to the Cabinet member for
Place improvement and maintenance programme. 
To secure approval for bridge maintenance schemes over £500K.

Content

(a)          
That
£1.5M of funding from the Department for Transport’s new Structures Fund, be
sought for essential concrete repairs and structural maintenance for the A30
Shaftesbury Bridge.

 

(b)          
That
Cabinet delegate authority to the Executive Director for Place in consultation
with the Cabinet Member for Place Services, to approve funding allocation to
the A30 Shaftesbury Bridge scheme from the Department for Transport Highways
Maintenance Block allocation if the project is not eligible for the Structures
Fund or maintenance is needed before the Structures Fund is allocated.

 

(c)          
That
Cabinet approves the spend within the forward plan (as set out in Appendix A of
the Cabinet report of 11 November 2025) for Department for Transport and other
externally funded highway improvement and structural maintenance work over
£500k, and delegates the making of any contract award for schemes within
Appendix A to the Cabinet Member for Place Services in consultation with the
Executive Director for Place.

 

(d)          
That
Cabinet endorse the overall highway structural maintenance programme as agreed
and in accordance with the Officer Scheme of Delegation, in consultation with
the Cabinet Member for Place Services, and confirm that approval of expenditure
for individual schemes below £500k within that programme be made under the
existing Officer Scheme of Delegation for Dorset Council.

 

Reason for the
decision

 

To align the
Department for Transport’s multi-year funding with the local objectives of the
Dorset Council Plan 2024 to 2029.

 

To support more
effective long term asset management and gain additional Department for
Transport investment for Dorset’s highway network. Improving resilience,
connectivity and road safety would strongly contribute to the Council’s
priorities of growing our economy, communities for all and responding to the
climate and nature crisis.