£500m extra pothole funding ‘doesn’t do much’, says Oxfordshire County Council
Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, announced there will be increased funding to road maintenance budgets next year
An extra £500m funding to tackle the issue of potholes across Oxfordshire and the UK, ‘doesn’t do much’ says Oxfordshire County Council.
In Labour's first Budget in 14 years, Rachel Reeves announced a boost to the Potholes Fund to repair the state of our roads and help drivers have safe journeys.
In last week’s Autumn Budget, the Chancellor said: "For all too long, potholes have been a visible reminder of our failure to invest as a nation. Today that changes.
"With £500million increase in road maintenance budgets next year, more than delivering on our manifesto commitment to fix an additional one million potholes each year.”
‘The challenges are absolutely enormous’
However, Cllr Andrew Gant, Cabinet Member for Transport Management, feels that it won’t stretch far enough to fix many issues.
Cllr Gant said: “Five hundred million sounds like a big number but over big infrastructure and across the entire county it really doesn’t do much.
“It is only a tiny fraction of what is needed. Oxfordshire is a big county and a rural county. We have a huge road network where a lot of it is historic in nature and subject to flooding. So, the challenges are absolutely enormous.
“I wish I could tell people that you will see a really visible difference in the potholes in your area, but there is just a huge challenge out there and this is going to make some difference but not an enormous difference.
“Can I promise that you will see your pothole being done? I can’t make that promise”.
As it currently stands on FixMySteet, there has been well over 2,000 reports to the County Council about problems to roads in Oxfordshire.
Cllr Gant is encouraging people to report problems and says, “It is reviewed every single day, stick a picture up there if there’s a pothole that you think it dangerous as it will be looked at and prioritised if it’s dangerous.”