County given £2.2m to fix potholes

Kent is getting another £2.2m to fix thousands of potholes during a ‘blitz’ this spring.

The government is giving the sum to Kent County Council (KCC) from a shared national kitty. According to the Department for Transport’s (DFT) own analysis, with an extra £300,000 from the local authority the sum will be enough to fix about 47,000 across its aging road network.

Last year the authority received £1,473,000 from the same fund, which left it with a £500,000 black hole to fill after cutting £2m from its road maintenance budget for 2016/17.

Setting out the motion to councillors Matthew Balfour (Con), cabinet member for environment and transport, said work will start soon and use local contractors.

He said: “We learned from last time that by using our staff to identify where the work should start we can make every pound spent more effective.”