Council must bid for pothole funding

COUNCILS across the UK are being urged to bid for a share of £168 million which has been put aside to help tackle the nation’s pothole problems.

Authorities must demonstrate that they can implement an array of repairs by March 2015 — and sign a Pot Hole Pledge — in order to be eligible for a portion of the Department for Transport funding announced in the Chancellor’s March Budget.

But Rotherham Borough Council will still face an uphill struggle to claw back a funding gap which has seen the authority rack up an £80 million pot hole repair backlog.

Transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin said: “I want councils to rise to the challenge and to reward councils who come up with new and better ways of making repairs quickly and effectively.

“With this new pothole fund, councils will need to clearly set out the scale of the work they are doing, and local communities can have certainty that the money is being spent fixing potholes on their local roads.”

The £168 million fund is enough to fix more than three million pot holes nationwide.

It comes in addition to the £10 billion for local roads maintenance that the Department for Transport is already providing to councils in England between 2010 and 2021.

Councils have until 4pm on May 22 to submit a bid to the Department for Transport.

Following March’s budget, Colin Knight, the borough council’s highway network group manager, responded to the Government’s pledge of additional funding for pothole repairs, stating: “It would need an investment of over £80 million to bring the 684-mile long network of roads across the borough up to perfect condition.”

The borough council has already pledged £13 million to road maintenance in 2014/15, including the £5 million spend on the Pool Green roundabout just outside Rotherham town centre.