Lancashire County Council is set to boost road maintenance with an extra £4.2million investment into the county’s roads.
According to Met Office data, last winter was the wettest since records began. Wet weather is a major cause of potholes, as water penetrates small weaknesses in the road surface causing cracks to open up, which is exacerbated during the winter as any moisture freezes to ice and expands.
Lancashire County Council receives around £28.8million of highways funding each year from the Department of Transport. However, council figures show that bringing all of Lancashire’s roads into good condition would cost more than £160million. This leaves a significant funding deficit, which cannot be met without additional support from Government.
Deputy leader, Councillor Alan Vincent announced at today’s Cabinet that an additional £4.2m would be redirected from an underspend on the Council’s capital budget. Of this, £1.7m will be spent on drainage works and £2.5m on resurfacing sections of road where multiple potholes have appeared, to avoid the need for repeat future visits.
Councillor Alan Vincent said: “Improving our roads is the county council’s number one priority for any additional funding we are able to find, and we’re pleased to have been able to announce another £4.2m for permanent repairs across the county today.
“This comes on top of the £17m of additional funding we have already been allocated in the current year for safety defect repairs (£12m) and highway maintenance (£5m), a 52% increase on the money we receive from government, in recognition of the importance to residents of improving our roads.
“Lancashire County Council receives £28.8m annually from the Department for Transport to cover more than 4,000 miles of roads, but our figures show that we would need more than £160m to bring all of our roads into a good condition.
“We cannot do that without some real support from Government and would welcome clarity from the Department for Transport on whether they are going to provide it.”
Cabinet approved the 2024/25 Highway Block of the Capital Programme in March 2024 which included the indicative Department for Transport highway maintenance grant funding of £28.811m and £3.661m additional funds for 2024/25 announced by the Government in October 2023 as part of the Network North fund.
Lancashire County Council also provided an additional £12m to cover safety defect repairs.
An additional £5m to support highway maintenance, made available through the application of capital receipts, was also approved in May 2024.
PIC-LANCASHIRE CC
