Government allocates an extra £100m to fix potholes

Local roads badly affected by recent winter weather will benefit from a further £100 million to help repair any potholes and other storm damage, Transport Secretary Chris Grayling announced today (March 26).

The money will help repair almost two million potholes as well as help protect the roads from any future severe weather.

The cash is on top of the £75m in Government funding already given to councils from the Pothole Action Fund this year, as well as the additional £46m boost for highways authorities announced just before Christmas.

Around seven million potholes will be filled due to this money, announced in the 2016 Budget.

However, cash-strapped councils report that more than 24,400 miles of road have been identified as needing essential maintenance in the next year, according to this year’s Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance (ALARM) survey.

Local authorities in England and Wales report that the gap between the funds they received and the amount they actually needed to keep the carriageway in reasonable order was almost £556 million – a shortfall of £3.3m for every authority. And, it would now take 14 years – up from 12 years in 2016/17 – to get local roads back into a reasonable steady state, provided adequate funds and resources were available.

Grayling said: “We have seen an unusually prolonged spell of freezing weather which has caused damage to our local roads.

“We are giving councils even more funding to help repair their roads so all road users can enjoy their journeys without having to dodge potholes.”

Already, £2.5m has been allocated to Devon County Council to quickly repair the A379 which was badly damaged by Storm Emma.

The Government is also investing more than £900,000 in innovations using connected vehicles to help councils more efficiently manage and plan maintenance works.

These trials will ultimately help provide councils with data to enable them to repair potholes before they occur as well as maintain their other assets more effectively as part of their asset management plans. This will help prevent further potholes and other road defects occurring over time, said the Government.

Blackpool Council has been given £100,000 to lead on a digital inspector scheme with eight councils. This will see high definition cameras mounted on vehicles to collect data on road and path conditions, which is then analysed by computers to highlight where roads are deteriorating.

The City of York will also get £72,000 to use a similar system to build on its pothole spotter trial.

Transport for the West Midlands, West Sussex County Council, Buckinghamshire County Council, Croydon Council and Southampton City Council have also been awarded funding for road condition monitoring innovations.

Swindon Borough Council will trial the use of smartphone sensors to collate road conditions and Essex County Council will work with Daimler to use information collected by its cars. Derby City Council and Oxfordshire County Council will use connected vehicles to collect data on the condition of road signs.

Westminster City Council will trial the use of cameras to provide real-time updates so people can locate parking spaces easier.

The department is also providing £30,000 to the Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning and Transport (ADEPT) to work on technological and innovative improvements to future-proof the local road network.

This fund is on top of the record £6 billion the government is providing local authorities between 2015 and 2021 to maintain and improve their roads.

Pothole/flood resilience funding

Area	Name	Pothole/flood resilience funding £97.5 millon allocation (£)
North East	North East CA	4,533,373
North West	Greater Manchester CA	2,882,002
North West	Liverpool City Region CA	1,860,126
Yorkshire and The Humber	Sheffield City Region CA	1,364,732
Yorkshire and The Humber	West Yorkshire CA	3,107,703
West Midlands	West Midlands ITA	1,702,946
North East	County Durham UA	1,296,639
North East	Darlington UA	185,229
North East	Hartlepool UA	136,775
North East	Middlesbrough UA	147,147
North East	Northumberland UA	1,849,720
North East	Redcar and Cleveland UA	246,208
North East	Stockton-on-Tees UA	270,003
North East	Gateshead	279,456
North East	Newcastle upon Tyne	296,781
North East	North Tyneside	265,372
North East	South Tyneside	183,836
North East	Sunderland	361,570
North West	Blackburn with Darwen UA	178,365
North West	Blackpool UA	146,983
North West	Cheshire East UA	1,081,305
North West	Cheshire West and Chester UA	892,090
North West	Halton UA	212,684
North West	Warrington UA	325,886
North West	Cumbria	2,859,217
North West	Bolton	318,470
North West	Bury	200,241
North West	Manchester	438,956
North West	Oldham	269,365
North West	Rochdale	247,494
North West	Salford	268,154
North West	Stockport	297,212
North West	Tameside	228,036
North West	Trafford	244,119
North West	Wigan	369,956
North West	Lancashire	2,393,218
North West	Knowsley	215,689
North West	Liverpool	481,702
North West	Sefton	311,440
North West	St. Helens	259,687
North West	Wirral	378,923
Yorkshire and The Humber	East Riding of Yorkshire UA	1,251,395
Yorkshire and The Humber	Kingston upon Hull, City of UA	205,595
Yorkshire and The Humber	North East Lincolnshire UA	223,298
Yorkshire and The Humber	North Lincolnshire UA	529,807
Yorkshire and The Humber	York UA	256,632
Yorkshire and The Humber	North Yorkshire	3,285,049
Yorkshire and The Humber	Barnsley	412,485
Yorkshire and The Humber	Doncaster	541,934
Yorkshire and The Humber	Rotherham	410,314
Yorkshire and The Humber	Sheffield	0
Yorkshire and The Humber	Bradford	595,461
Yorkshire and The Humber	Calderdale	385,751
Yorkshire and The Humber	Kirklees	629,186
Yorkshire and The Humber	Leeds	989,926
Yorkshire and The Humber	Wakefield	507,378
East Midlands	Derby UA	230,810
East Midlands	Leicester UA	260,236
East Midlands	Nottingham UA	242,057
East Midlands	Rutland UA	213,766
East Midlands	Derbyshire	2,035,992
East Midlands	Leicestershire	1,560,176
East Midlands	Lincolnshire	3,457,324
East Midlands	Northamptonshire	1,630,762
East Midlands	Nottinghamshire	1,635,629
West Midlands	Herefordshire, County of UA	1,252,647
West Midlands	Shropshire UA	1,858,807
West Midlands	Stoke-on-Trent UA	271,391
West Midlands	Telford and Wrekin UA	347,983
West Midlands	Staffordshire	2,203,545
West Midlands	Warwickshire	1,415,650
West Midlands	Birmingham	0
West Midlands	Coventry	276,480
West Midlands	Dudley	331,366
West Midlands	Sandwell	313,551
West Midlands	Solihull	278,680
West Midlands	Walsall	261,690
West Midlands	Wolverhampton	241,180
West Midlands	Worcestershire	1,627,557
East of England	Bedford UA	305,589
East of England	Central Bedfordshire UA	495,565
East of England	Luton UA	130,996
East of England	Peterborough UA	334,006
East of England	Southend-on-Sea UA	142,545
East of England	Thurrock UA	213,231
East of England	Cambridgeshire	1,608,546
East of England	Essex	2,602,886
East of England	Hertfordshire	1,801,196
East of England	Norfolk	3,448,743
East of England	Suffolk	2,454,918
South East	Bracknell Forest UA	174,074
South East	Brighton and Hove UA	188,705
South East	Isle of Wight UA	0
South East	Medway UA	280,565
South East	Milton Keynes UA	389,883
South East	Portsmouth UA	154,934
South East	Reading UA	134,681
South East	Slough UA	91,408
South East	Southampton UA	190,285
South East	West Berkshire UA	467,317
South East	Windsor and Maidenhead UA	240,894
South East	Wokingham UA	282,055
South East	Buckinghamshire	1,187,081
South East	East Sussex	1,177,912
South East	Hampshire	2,956,522
South East	Kent	3,058,239
South East	Oxfordshire	1,831,494
South East	Surrey	1,878,063
South East	West Sussex	1,594,870
South West	Bath and North East Somerset UA	379,059
South West	Bournemouth UA	157,232
South West	Bristol, City of UA	357,387
South West	Cornwall UA	2,572,746
South West	North Somerset UA	383,954
South West	Plymouth UA	228,539
South West	Poole UA	173,296
South West	South Gloucestershire UA	504,258
South West	Swindon UA	270,224
South West	Torbay UA	163,108
South West	Wiltshire UA	1,811,343
South West	Devon*	4,446,606
South West	Dorset	1,490,177
South West	Gloucestershire	1,998,120
South West	Somerset	2,437,335