County Council welcomes extra Government money for pothole repairs

Officials at Derbyshire County Council have warmly welcomed content from the Spring Budget that the Government intends to provide highways authorities with an extra £200m to repair and maintain local roads.

The authority expects to receive around £4.2m in 2023/24 as part of its share of the new funding and made the announcement shortly after revealing that it had fixed 22,000 potholes since the start of the year. 

To help achieve this significant repair milestone, the council’s highways team has mobilised extra roadworker repair gangs across the county, extended working hours to include weekends and hired in Jetpatcher machines to help carry out repairs on rural roads more quickly.

A statement said that snow and cold weather had made keeping on top of pothole repairs very challenging, as ‘freeze thaw’ conditions cause roads to crack with any loose material washed away by the rain.

Derbyshire County Council's Cabinet Member for Highways Assets and Transport, Councillor Kewal Singh Athwal said: “The Government’s announcement of an extra £4.2m to repair local roads across our county is very welcome.

“As we enter the final year of our major three-year £120 million investment programme to improve the county’s road network, we have already delivered around £80 million of new highway projects.

“The additional Government funding will enable us to expand our repair programme even further to deliver better roads for local residents.”