£3m boost for urgent road repairs

FROM COUNCIL ECONOMIC CHALLENGES

A £3 MILLION war chest has been lined up for urgent road repairs across Leicestershire.

The one-off pot of money is set to be used to mend potholes and “patch repair” across the county’s 2,800-mile highways network, Leicestershire County Council has said.

The council could not yet say which roads, pavements and pathways would be included in the scheme, but a spokeswoman for the authority told the Mercury they would “use the money to continue tackling the most urgent priorities across the county”.

The £3 million would be diverted from funds previously allocated to tackling the impact of the challenging economic climate on the council.

If councillors approve the transfer of the funds at a cabinet meeting tomorrow, it will boost the budget for fixing and maintaining Leicestershire’s roads, cycle paths and pavements. The money is the equivalent of 30,000 repairs or 75,000 square metres of damaged road. It would be used to target issues across the county, the council added.

A huge preventative programme – known as “surface dressing” – is also set to get under way this summer.

This will see more than 600,000 square metres of road treated to prevent potholes forming in the first place.

Councillor Ozzy O’Shea, cabinet member for highways and transport, said: “We’re working really hard to tackle the wear and tear we see on our roads.

“We’ve got some of the best roads in the country but, like other areas, we face an ongoing budget squeeze and growing demand.

“Channelling this one-off money into day-to-day maintenance means we can keep up our good work fixing potholes and repairing defects which we know is really important to our residents.”

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FUNDS SET TO BE DIVERTED