Norfolk County Council has confirmed it abolished the Local Members Highways Fund earlier in 2026 and redirected the entire £924,000 budget into centrally managed road maintenance — despite initially describing the spending as an investment in "better roads and highways" in its new strategy document.

The Leader of the Council confirmed the reallocation in a written answer to Cllr Ben Weston, who had questioned whether the figure represented genuinely new spending or simply a rebadging of existing funds. The Leader acknowledged it was a reallocation, arguing that pooling the money delivers larger, more cost-effective schemes than the previous system of individual councillor allocations.

The funding has been divided across four areas of the county: £352,000 in the North for spray-applied patching, drainage improvements and layered patching; £143,000 in Norwich for carriageway layered patching; £275,000 in the South for spray-applied patching; and £154,000 in the West for machine patching works.

The change means local councillors no longer have a direct say over which highway schemes are prioritised in their divisions. Previously, each of Norfolk's 84 councillors could direct £11,000 towards locally identified road improvements. That discretion has now been removed, with scheme selection handed to officers using the council's asset management processes.

Cllr Jim Webber raised the issue separately during the meeting, noting that the removal of the Local Member Fund had caused "significant confusion" among town and parish councils who no longer knew how to progress local highway matters. The Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport said budgets were tight and acknowledged he could not guarantee all projects would go ahead, but said he was willing to review the Terms of Reference for Parish Partnerships.