On National Pothole Day, East Mids Mayor pledges millions of pounds to help councils with road maintenance

Credit: Onclusive News

Millions of pounds are being pledged by the Mayor of the East Midlands to help the region’s local highways authorities tackle the scourge of motorists – potholes.

On Thursday 15th January, National Pothole Day, the Mayor of the East Midlands detailed an intention to ensure that the region’s four highways authorities – Nottingham City, Nottinghamshire County, Derby City and Derbyshire County councils – have funding to tackle the problem.

Mayor Claire Ward said: “As Mayor of the East Midlands, I’m not responsible for highways – that responsibility sits with our four councils. However, I am keen to ensure they have as much funding as I can provide to them, so that they can do as good a job on our roads.”

Members of the authority’s transport committee met to consider a draft transport budget for 2026/27, which was set to go to the EMCCA board for approval at the next board meeting on Monday 26th January.

The budget proposes allocating £121m to the four authorities for highways maintenance, with £8m for both Derby City and Nottingham City, £46.9m for Nottinghamshire County and £58m for Derbyshire County.

It follows the Government’s launch of road maintenance ratings for local authorities across the country this week, with each authority given a rating of green, amber or red.

While 16 authorities were given the top, green rating, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire and Derby were among the 125 authorities given an overall rating of amber.

Derbyshire County Council was one of the just 16 authorities given the bottom, red rating.

The ratings are based on three measures:

• the current condition of local roads;
• how much each local highway authority is spending on maintaining its local roads;
• how effectively each local highway authority follows best practice in highways maintenance – for example by using technologies to fix and prevent potholes more efficiently.

Both Nottinghamshire and Nottingham were amber for condition and best practice, but green for spend.

Derby was rated amber for condition and spend – but given a green rating for wider best practice.

Derbyshire was amber for spend and best practice, but red for condition, with the state of the county’s 5,346 kilometres of roads ranked among the worst in the country.

Mayor Claire urged Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Nottingham councils to learn from Derby City Council’s best practice when it comes to tackling potholes.

Mayor Claire said: “Years of underinvestment in our roads has left them in a condition that leaves a lot to be desired – and sadly the sheer volume of potholes mean it is not a problem which can be remedied overnight.

“This year I gave our councils a 40 per cent uplift in their funding to help with that maintenance of our highways.

“Now, as I start to prepare the budget for the coming financial year, starting in April, I want to see what else I can do to help them get more money to give us good quality, safe roads, not just for car drivers, but for pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists.

“Derby City Council was also recognised by the Department for Transport for its best practice when it comes to roads maintenance and I urge the other highways authorities to follow Derby’s lead to improve our roads for everyone.”

The East Midlands Combined County Authority (EMCCA) gave the four authorities a combined £75.7 million towards roads maintenance for 2025/26, a 40 per cent increase on the funds awarded in 2024/25 – with a further 60 per cent uplift proposed for 2026/27, to £121m.