A blueprint to improve performance and efficiency in the highways maintenance industry to aid cash-strapped councils under fire from government cuts is being produced by a leading trade body.

The new head of Britain’s leading highways trade body has vowed to ‘develop stronger, productive and results-orientated outcomes across the sector’ despite the pressures of Government spending cuts.

Philip Hoare was appointed new chairman of the Highways Term Maintenance Association (HTMA) at the organisations AGM in London last week and immediately committed the organisation to further improving the quality of highways management and maintenance in a bid to reinforce the message that reliable and safe roads are paramount to the social and economic needs of the nation.