NORTH Herefordshire MP Sir Bill Wiggin has welcomed the Conservative-led county council’s decision to drop Balfour Beatty as its main road repair contractor and to retender for the work.

“For far too long our roads have needed resurfacing,” the Conservative MP said, claiming that the contractors used by the previous Independents for Herefordshire/Green coalition which ran the county “seemed to do very little for road users”.

With millions of pounds for transport improvements awarded to the county, he added: “This can reverse the anti-road agenda that the Green and Independent council left us with and repair the terrible roads drivers are suffering from.”

He had called on the council to decide whether Balfour Beatty were capable of “overseeing the spending of Herefordshire’s £106,918,000 on road resurfacing”.