AN extra half a million pounds for filling potholes and highway maintenance is being made available due to a £3m council underspend last year.

The cash is the result of a £3.34m surplus at the end of the 2025/26 financial year which will mostly be used to top up reserves. says the Abergavenny Chronicle.

Torfaen Borough Council will reduce the amount it holds in an assurance reserve so it can instead put the money towards highway maintenance with the aim of reducing claims for damages to vehicles.

Head of finance Rob Green told the council’s Labour cabinet, which approved the transfers to reserves: “The insurance reserve wasn’t ultimately required. We feel we had enough and that will hopefully reduce, or avoid, the claims we would have received on insurance.”

The council is releasing £400,000 from its asset reserve, which it is able to do by reducing the amount held in the insurance fund, and adding a further £100,000 from its members choice reserve, used for discretionary spending to be agreed by councillors, to provide the additional half a million pounds for the highway network in this year’s capital budget that covers one-off and large spending commitments.

The cabinet was presented with the financial outturn report for the 2025/26 financial year, that finished at the end of March and the report shows the total amount spent against the £248m budget agreed in March 2025.

The £3.34m underspend, or surplus, which is a variance of only 1.34 per cent against the net budget was described as “good news” by chief financial officer Andrew Lovegrove.

He said:

“It is my pleasure to report we had an underspend, it is always good news for the council, a revenue underspend of about £3m.”

(Picture: Magnific)