By Richard Johnstone | 20 June 2014
Councils have pledged to fill more than 3 million potholes to receive allocations from the government’s £168m Potholes Challenge Fund, the Department for Transport has announced.
Ministers invited bids for the funding, which was first announced in Chancellor George Osborne's Budget, in April, calling for councils to set out how many potholes they would fix.
Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin today announced that a total of 148 authorities applied for funding and all will receive a share, having committed to repair more than 3 million holes.
All repair works have to be completed by end March 2015, and councils will need to publish quarterly updates so that local residents can see how many potholes or miles of resurfacing has been undertaken in their area, he said.
‘Potholes are the bane of all our lives and the funding announced today is an important step in ridding our roads of this menace,’ he said.
‘But it is only one part of a massive programme of investment to get our country up to speed as part of this government’s long term economic plan. By building, repairing and renewing our key infrastructure we will ensure the future growth and prosperity of this country.’
Larger allocations have been made to authorities that have been able to demonstrate best practice in highways maintenance, including those that have brought in specialist machinery or set up dedicated crews to help fix potholes or prevent them from appearing in the first place.
These include Northamptonshire (£3.3m allocated), which has set up systems to track pothole repairs in real time, Hampshire (£6.1m), which has invested in extra equipment, and Lancashire (£4.9m), which has formed partnerships with suppliers and contractors.
