The Government is making an additional £140m available to help councils fix the roads most damaged by the exceptionally severe weather of recent months.
The Government says that this additional investment brings the total allocated to road maintenance to more than £1bn in 2013/14.
The additional money will be allocated on a formula basis and distributed to the majority of councils in England by the end of this week, to ensure that they can make use of it as soon as possible and complete works before the summer holidays.
In order to qualify for the extra funding, local authorities will be required to publish information on their websites by the end of August showing where it has been spent.
Patrick McLoughlin, transport secretary, said: “This extra money will help make a real difference to the millions of road users and local residents who rely on local roads, giving them safer and smoother journeys.
“Councils have a responsibility to maintain their roads properly, but the exceptional weather has caused significant additional damage, increasing the amount of damage to the local road network. As the floodwaters have receded and councils have been able to assess the impact, it is clear that the these have been particularly severe in certain areas.”
Can the government also point out to local councils that it’s not just the pot hole that is the problem, it’s the debris that comes out of it. Perhaps if road safety officers considered it a danger and put pressure on their employees then something might be done about it.
bob craven Lancs
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Why this annual chirade announcing new money – why not just do it correctly in the first place?
pete, liverpool
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Martin
You say no reports are published but I quickly flicked onto the Surrey CC website and found a list of all planned roads maintenance for 2013/14, broken down by district:
http://www.surreycc.gov.uk/roads-and-transport/road-maintenance-and-cleaning/our-planned-maintenance
Hope that helps.
Nick Rawlings, editor, Road Safety News
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Terrible Deja Vu! Didn’t the same thing happen after the severe winter (snow and frost) last year? Doesn’t seem to have made any difference to the response rate and general maintenance in my home county of Surrey. They even have two 5 year projects to deal with the backlog, but useful, quantified reports are not published publicly.
Martin, Surrey
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