Pothole Action Fund

Councils to share £250M pothole fund

Earlier this month, the Government announced a £50M fund for repairing potholes across the country, meaning some one million potholes will be filled in the next 12 months.

The full scheme, the Pothole Action Fund, provides £250M over the next five years to improve local roads and deliver better journeys, by fixing over four million potholes by 2020/21.

This financial year, over 100 councils in England will receive the funding, removing some 943,000 potholes across the country. Allocation of the funding has been determined by the size of the local road network and that each pothole can be filled for £53. This year Devon has the biggest single allocation, receiving £1.9M to fill 36,830 potholes.

Local highway maintenance has been given a boost through government spending in recent years, with some £6.1Bn due to be spent between 2015/16 and 2020/21.

With the long-term certainty of funding provided, councils will be able to plan long-term in preventing potholes and improving local roads, bridges and street lighting.

Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin said of the announcement: “I know how important well-maintained roads are to people across the country. Almost every journey starts and ends on a local road, so the government is giving councils £250M specifically to tackle the blight of potholes in their area.

“This is just one part of our unprecedented investment in local road maintenance over the next five years. We are giving a record £6Bn to local authorities in England that will improve journeys across the regions.”

RAC chief engineer David Bizley said: “While any cash to fix potholes is welcome, we will not get on top of the problem until there is a recognition that potholes arise because of a lack of preventative maintenance. Until we start talking about how many potholes we have prevented rather than how many we have filled, we are doomed to a local road network that is the weak link in the transport infrastructure.

“It’s time for the government to recognise that local roads are a vital part of the transport infrastructure which should be brought into the scope of the Infrastructure Commission so that they are rightly treated as a long-term strategic asset.

“While the government’s Road Investment Strategy is ensuring the future ‘fitness-for-purpose’ of the strategic road network in England there is a very real danger that local roads will suffer ongoing decline through insufficient investment and no long-term strategy to improve them. What use would it be having excellent motorways, major roads, railways, ports and airports if, when getting to or from them, you are faced with pothole-ridden, crumbling local roads where, of course, all journeys start and finish.”

An interactive map has been produced to allow people to see where the money will be spent.

Councils to receive funding are:

• Cornwall
• Cumbria
• Derbyshire
• Devon
• Essex
• Gloucestershire
• Hampshire
• Kent
• Lancashire
• Lincolnshire
• Norfolk
• Northumberland
• North Yorkshire
• Oxfordshire
• Shropshire
• Somerset
• Staffordshire
• Suffolk
• Surrey

 

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