Tories dig deep with £100m more to ease pothole crisis
POTHOLE repairing has won an extra £100million of government funding in the wake of the Beast from the East.
Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said an “unusually prolonged spell of freezing weather” had damaged thousands of roads.
The money will help to repair almost two million potholes and protect roads from further bad weather, a Department for Transport spokesman said.
The move comes days after a report found a fifth of minor roads in England and Wales could become unusable in five years.
It also warned that councils faced a funding black hole to maintain carriageways.
Mr Grayling said: “We have seen an unusually prolonged spell of freezing weather, which has damaged our local roads.”
He added that giving councils more funding would mean “all road users can enjoy their journeys without having to dodge potholes”.
The announcement comes after an annual Asphalt Industry Alliance study highlighted the poor state of roads.
Twenty per cent of highways in England and Wales have fewer than five years left before they become unusable, researchers stated.
This represents more than 40,000 miles of road. Spending on maintenance is “way short” of the total needed.
The gap between the sum councils in England and Wales received to keep routes in “reasonable order” and what they needed was £556million in 2017-2018.
As well as the pothole and flood resilience funding announced, further cash will enable new technology to be used to improve road maintenance and potentially stop potholes developing.
Schemes receiving a share of this £900,000 fund include a plan devised by Blackpool Council to mount high-definition cameras on vehicles to collect data on road conditions.
Also, Westminster City Council in London will test the use of cameras to provide real-time updates on parking spaces.
The Local Government Association’s Martin Tett said: “It is positive that the Government has listened to councils and made more funding available to help to repair local roads which have been affected by the recent severe winter weather.
“But the funding announced today will provide just over one per cent of what is needed to tackle our £9.3billion local roads repair backlog.”
He warned that councils are likely to need more government support as the full extent of the repairs needed after the freezing weather becomes clear. He added that a “long-term, sustainable funding solution” was required.