Wiltshire joins calls for better road repair support for local councils
Some council's are having to wait to repair potholes
Wiltshire Council has joined the Local Government Association (LGA) in calls for more road repair funding to be handed out over a longer duration.
It comes amid concern that some local authorities are waiting until potholes reach a certain size before acting on them.
The LGA said councils are on the side of road users and want to focus on resurfacing roads, but uncertainty over funding levels is holding them back.
Wiltshire Council's Nick Holder told Greatest Hits Radio that he 'completely agrees' with the LGA, saying they will be lobbying Department for Transport members for a deal similar to that of National Highways after July's General Election.
National Highway's receives it's funding over a five-year period, while local councils get it over three.
Darren Rodwell, transport spokesman for the Local Government Association, said: "Councils would much prefer to focus on preventative repairs but only greater, year-on-year long-term funding certainty for maintaining all parts of our highways will help them achieve this.
"The Government should award council highways departments five-yearly funding allocations, on a par with National Highways, to give them more certainty to develop resurfacing programmes and other improvements to help prevent potholes in the first place."
Council's letting potholes grow before acting
It means that councils across the country are having to be more particular about what road repair works they can carry out, with some even stating the dimensions a pothole must reach before they'll tackle it.
Research by the RAC found 35% do state how big a road defect needs to be before they act, while 37% say they take a risk based approach.
29% didn't state any criteria.
Cllr Nick Holder, Cabinet Member for Highways, Street Scene and Flooding said they follow a series of national guidelines using a priority system.
He said: "They go from priority one, which is a pothole that is due to be repaired by midnight the next day. So that's why it's a 'P1', all the way down to 'P5' where we refer it to our local highways manager to determine what intervention is needed."
He added that size and scale of the pothole were two factors included in the decision making process, along with which part of the highway it's on.