War chest to beat the country’s pothole backlog

Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin has announced that a fund specifically targeting areas of the country worst-hit by recent wet weather would be raised by £36.5m to £80m, and all councils will also share in a £103.5m kitty for fixing potholes and other damage.

Most councils are expected to receive the extra money by the end of this week to ensure works are completed before the summer holidays. Councils will be required to publish on websites by the end of August details of how it was used.

Mr McLoughlin 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.”

According to Britannia Rescue, councils paid out a total of £2.5m in compensation to motorists for pothole and other road damage to cars in the last financial year.

North Yorkshire County Council leader John Weighell met the Transport Secretary a fortnight ago to make the case for the Government to match the Council’s own budget decision to spend an extra £5m on road maintenance in the coming year.

And with less than five months before hundreds of thousands of visitors visit the county for the Tour de France’s Grand Départ, Councillor Weighell said he is hopeful that any new investment will include additional funding for North Yorkshire.

He fears, however, that large chunks of the money will go to flood hit areas in the South: “I am concerned that the Thames Valley and Somerset, as well as coastal areas of South West and Wales in particular, could get a big percentage of this money, whereas when North Yorkshire suffered from massive floods in 2012, particularly in September 2012, we got virtually no extra funds.”

North Yorkshire County Council spends £28m a year on road repairs but it would cost £322m to carry out all of the area’s outstanding road maintenance tasks, Coun Weighell said, adding that the backlog could not be tackled in the short-term.