Posted on Friday 12th May 2023
A new fund will help county councillors tackle potholes in their local area.
The £2 million fund will be used to tackle defects already reported to Staffordshire County Council by the public, and gives county councillors the opportunity to prioritise local repairs above other non-urgent repairs.
The money is part of the £4.8 million the county council received from the Department for Transport’s pothole fund. This is on top of the already-announced £5 million investment for road repairs, and a £30 million investment in the county’s roads over the next two years.
The scheme will run alongside the existing member’s Divisional Highways Programme (DHP), where members work with communities, parish councils and other local bodies to identify improvements that can be made in their local areas. These improvements can be anything from addressing local concerns about road safety, to signage and other maintenance tasks.
The scheme is live now, with any work anticipated to take place in the summer. Meanwhile, people can still report defects online at www.staffordshire.gov.uk/ReportIt.
Staffordshire County Council Cabinet Member for Highways David Williams said:
“This new fund will help local communities and organisations bring their highways issues to the attention of local members. Local members know their individual areas incredibly well, and are in the best place to be able to determine what highways issues need to be tackled, in partnership with local people.
“Defects affect everyone, but we must prioritise those that are the most dangerous. Even so, we recognise that there may be lower-level defects that affect local areas and is what this fund is for.
“This fund will run alongside each member’s divisional highways fund, which is also used to tackle issues such as drainage, defects and signage that local people want addressing."