Gavin Williamson, MP for South Staffordshire, has welcomed the announcement of £4,578,155 of new funding for Staffordshire to tackle potholes.
In total, £6,709,440 of additional funding for Staffordshire has been announced for this year, on top of the annual roads maintenance budget.
Over three million potholes will be filled in across England with funding from the £168 million Pothole Fund, announced in the 2014 Budget. This is part of more than £24 billion which will be spent on England’s roads between 2010 and 2021 – the biggest investment in our roads since the 1970s.
Gavin said: “This is great news for everybody who uses the roads in Staffordshire.
“£4,578,155 of new funding will go a long way to dealing with the menace of potholes and ridding them from our roads.
“Investing in Britain’s roads and infrastructure is a key part of the Conservatives long-term economic plan to secure a better future for Britain – and this is just one part of that. By fixing Britain’s roads, this Government is supporting local businesses and making life that bit easier for the hardworking people in South Staffordshire, who rely on them to get around.”
Gavin wrote to the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the issue of potholes, earlier this year, after a series of residents raised concerns about the state of local roads in a survey that he sent out within the constituency.
Many expressed frustration over the large number of potholes and the length of time taken to repair any deterioration.
In his letter, Gavin wrote about the problem of potholes on rural roads and requested additional funding for repairs.
In the subsequent Budget, The Rt. Hon. George Osbourne MP announced a £200 million fund to tackle the nation’s potholes, £168 million of which was committed towards the nation’s road network.
This came in addition to £183.5 million of funding to help local Councils repair roads in areas that had been devastated by floods, which was announced by the Secretary of State for Transport, The Rt. Hon Patrick McLoughlin MP, in early March.
Staffordshire County Council was awarded £2,131,285 of this, to be spent by the summer, to carry out repairs and fix potholes on the county’s road network. The Council used the funding to pay for two extra pothole-blitzing machines – in addition to the two already out tackling potholes and improving road surfaces in the county.