The new administration at Kent County Council has pledged to spend £67m repairing the county’s potholes, renewing road surfaces and preventing future damage, according to the BBC.
Linden Kemkaran, the leader of Kent County Council, said:
“Kent’s residents have told us loud and clear that they are fed up with the poor state of our roads. Years of short-term, reactive funding from successive governments have left our road network in decline.”
A DfT spokesperson said:
“We are delivering record investment to end the pothole plague, which is why Kent County Council will receive more than £50 million to fix its roads this year.”
The new investment, which the council said was already under way, includes:
- £25m for renewing and reconstructing roads
- £10m for preventative measures to stop potholes forming
- £11m for quick repairs
- £14m additional funding from DfT for a dedicated pothole and patching programme – a 65% increase on last year’s investment
Peter Osborne, cabinet member for highways and transport, said:
“So far, we’ve repaired more than 12,000 potholes – and we’re not stopping.”
Toby Howe, highways and transportation strategic resilience manager at the Council, told BBC Radio Kent earlier in July the authority had contractors ready to fix Kent’s potholes, but not sufficient funding to do so.
A report in March found that the backlog of repairs to “pothole-plagued” roads in the south-east of England was £2.5bn.
(Pic: riseatseven)
