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Bolton Council will have to prove it is fixing its pothole ridden roads - or face having cash taken off it by the Government. The council, like other l ocal authorities will start to get their share of £1.6 billion in highway maintenance funding confirmed last year, up £500 million from the previous year, in mid-April.
But from Monday, they will be required to publish annual progress reports or face having funding withheld. (Image: Henry Lisowski) The leader of Bolton Council welcomed the Government's move to increase pothole funding for local authorities - labelling it as "welcome help". Labour's Cllr Nick Peel also said that measures brought in for this year's council budget will cover pothole-related costs for a further two years.
This comes as Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said the Government wants to ensure councils are not “frittering money away on ineffective road repairs”. Read more: Government announces millions in pothole funding Read more: Bolton Council on 2025 approach to potholes as risk ..
. Read more: The street with sections including 'more potholes than road' “The public deserves to know how their councils are improving their local roads, which is why they will have to show progress or risk losing 25 per cent of their £500 million funding boost,” the transport secretary said. Cllr Peel said: “The additional pothole funding is welcome help that will help cut into the backlog of the nation’s crumbling roads.
"But of course, we all know that pothole filling is not the long term answer; it is only a short-term fix. "The long-term answer is a properly funded roads resurfacing budget. "The Labour budget that was passed by the council for the next two financial years commits £7.
5M into this resurfacing budget, partly thanks to a better-than-expected financial settlement by the new Government.” Sir Keir Starmer said: “British people are bored of seeing their politicians aimlessly pointing at potholes with no real plan to fix them. That ends with us.
“We’ve done our part by handing councils the cash and certainty they need – now it’s up to them to get on with the job, put that money to use and prove they’re delivering for their communities.” The Local Government Association said the cost of the local road repairs backlog is nearly £17 billion. Cllr Adam Hug, the LGA’s transport spokesperson, said: “Councils already spend more than they receive from central government on tackling potholes and repairing our roads.
“However, it’s in everyone’s interests to ensure that public money is well spent. “This includes the Government playing its full part by using the Spending Review to ensure that councils receive sufficient, long-term funding certainty, so they can focus their efforts on much more cost-effective, preventative measures rather than reactively fixing potholes , which is more expensive.”.
