Nottinghamshire will receive around £3.3 million of funding to fix potholes on the county's roads. It was recently announced in the Government's budget that £200 million was being allocated to fix potholes across England, on top of existing highways maintenance funding.
The Government has now confirmed that Nottinghamshire will receive £3,312,000 to fix 66,240 potholes in the county. In Nottingham itself, covered by the city council, £491,600 of funding has been allocated.
Nottinghamshire County Council Leader and Mansfield 's Conservative MP, Ben Bradley, said: "People in Mansfield deserve good quality roads in order to travel around, seeing their family and friends and travelling to work in a safe way. Highways and the state of Nottinghamshire's roads was the major issue in the local elections back in 2021.
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"That's why at a county level we did a full review into how we maintain our roads and totally overhauled our highway maintenance system." The welcoming of the £3.3 million funding comes despite Mr Bradley recently saying that around £200 million would be needed to do the "best possible job" on Nottinghamshire's roads.
The MP was criticising an opposition group's failed amendment to the county council's budget which would have seen £20 million spent on fixing Nottinghamshire's potholes. He told Nottinghamshire Live at the time: "The idea that £20 million would fix anything is for the birds. Truth be told, if we wanted to do the best possible job we could we'd want £200 million."
But in terms of the Government's funding announcement, Ben Bradley added: "Any amount of extra money is welcome to help us combat potholes and I would like to thank government for providing just over three million extra in funding to our highways team. I know this funding will not only improve the quality of people’s journeys in Mansfield but will also make Nottinghamshire's roads safer for everyone who uses them."
Analysis by the Local Government Association before the 2023 budget showed the Government was spending 31 times more on maintaining motorways and A roads than on funding councils to fix potholes. Figures showed the Government spending £192,000 per mile on maintaining strategic roads, compared to just £6,000 per mile on local roads.
But Transport Secretary Mark Harper added: "Potholes are a blight on Britain's road. This latest round of funding shows we are committed to supporting all road users–from motorists to cyclists and bus passengers–and making journeys smoother and safer for all."
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