Rural Roads

Lee Pitcher Excerpts
Tuesday 17th March 2026

(1 day, 7 hours ago)

Westminster Hall
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Lee Pitcher Portrait Lee Pitcher (Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme) (Lab)
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My asks to the Minister on rural roads are clear. First, will she ensure that funding frameworks properly recognise rural roads so that roads connecting villages and rural communities are not consistently deprioritised?

Secondly, will she strengthen expectations on the quality and durability of repairs so that councils and contractors are judged on not just how many defects they fix, but whether those fixes last?

Thirdly, will she look at how Government could better support co-ordination across local authority boundaries so that roads that function as a single route are treated that way in practice?

Finally, will she ensure that preventive maintenance does not become a substitute for the more substantial resurfacing and reconstruction that many rural roads now clearly require?