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

*Devon will also receive £2.5 million for the A379 road repairs as announced by the Prime Minister on March 7 2018.

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