A MAJOR re-organisation affecting the way in which Kent’s roads are repaired and maintained could cost the taxpayer as much as £25million.

Kent County Council insists its decision to abandon arrangements in which the job of maintaining roads was done in partnership with 12 district and borough councils will eventually save money.

But transport chiefs have now disclosed that they expect to have to spend as much as £5million for new sites for depots and a further £20million to build those depots.

Cllr Keith Ferrin (Con), KCC’s cabinet member for highways, said that in time, KCC expected to save about £2million a year once the Kent Highways Partnership was fully established.

But he did not deny that claims from the opposition parties about the up-front costs were broadly accurate.

“The £5million is the cost of buying sites in west Kent, east Kent and mid Kent. The [estimates] are accurate in the sense that these are the estimated costs but as yet, no sites have been bought,” he said.

Labour said the figures meant council taxpayers would have to wait 16 years before seeing any benefit.

Cllr Ferrin said savings would come from a smaller workforce and would take effect this year. “The savings will be a matter of comparing the new staff bill with the old staffing bill. I am totally satisfied that it will be value for money.”

KCC Liberal Democrat group leader Cllr Trudy Dean said the figures raised a question mark over the move to scrap what had been a successful partnership with districts and borough councils.

“We have asked since the very beginning for some of the costs only to be told they were not available. These figures do raise a query about whether it was a good deal,” she said.

The decision to scrap the partnership in 2004 means KCC alone is now responsible for all aspects of road maintenance and issues such as traffic management and street lights.

At the time, many local councils opposed KCC plans to end what they believed were successful partnership schemes.