North West gets 13% of national pothole fund
The Government has announced the regional allocations for the first year of its five-year £250m Pothole Action Fund, with 22 councils in the North West sharing £6.4m out of a national total of £50m.
The Pothole Action Fund was announced by Chancellor George Osborne in last month’s Budget, and is aiming to fix four million potholes nationally by 2020/21.
A statement from the Department for Transport said that the allocation would help to remove 120,000 potholes from the North West’s roads over the next financial year.
Greater Manchester has received £1.5m, Cumbria £1.44m, Lancashire £1.4m, Cheshire & Warrington £1.14m, and Liverpool City Region has received the least at £941,000, despite Mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson’s recent lobbying of Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin for increased funds for road improvements.
In March, Anderson met with McLoughlin to discuss urgent money to fix potholes, as part of a push to deal with a £269m road repair backlog that the council said has built up over years.
Anderson emphasised that the council only receives around £3m a year in government funding to tackle the problem and in a statement said that it had been a “positive conversation” with McLoughlin.
The DfT said that funding from the Pothole Allocation Fund was calculated according to the size of the local road network in the area.
Following the announcement of the regional allocation, McLoughlin said: “I know how important well-maintained roads are to people across the North West. Almost every journey starts and ends on a local road, so the government is giving councils in the North West £6.4m specifically to tackle the blight of potholes in their area.
“This is just one part of our unprecedented investment in local road maintenance over the next five years. We are giving a record £625m to local authorities in North West that will support the Northern Powerhouse and improve journeys for all.”
| Local Authority | Pothole Action Fund 2016/17 (£) | Number of potholes can fill |
| Warrington | 161,000 | 3,038 |
| Blackburn with Darwen | 85,000 | 1,604 |
| Blackpool | 77,000 | 1,453 |
| Cheshire East | 534,000 | 10,075 |
| Cheshire West and Chester | 448,000 | 8,453 |
| Cumbria | 1,444,000 | 27,245 |
| Lancashire | 1,241,000 | 23,415 |
| Bolton | 170,000 | 3,208 |
| Bury | 105,000 | 1,981 |
| Manchester | 209,000 | 3,943 |
| Oldham | 137,000 | 2,585 |
| Rochdale | 121,000 | 2,283 |
| Salford | 137,000 | 2,585 |
| Stockport | 151,000 | 2,849 |
| Tameside | 117,000 | 2,208 |
| Trafford | 137,000 | 2,585 |
| Wigan | 195,000 | 3,679 |
| Halton | 101,000 | 1,906 |
| Knowsley | 107,000 | 2,019 |
| Liverpool | 229,000 | 4,321 |
| Sefton | 155,000 | 2,925 |
| St. Helens | 143,000 | 2,698 |
| Wirral | 206,000 | 3,887 |
You’d need the whole £6.4M to just resolve Liverpool Road in Salford.
By Jeff Suster
I was going to say the same for Altrincham Road in Wythenshawe, though you can’t see most of them due to the usually blocked drains!
By Gene Walker
Patchwork quilt roads everywhere.
Pot hole ‘fixed’ and then three weeks later the entire road and pavement are covered in aggregate where the pot hole patch has failed.
Manchester City Council have been shamed by other AGMA councils recently with their road maintenance strategy. There’s not a single road that is up to the required standard whilst they waste millions in the city centre
By M40