George Eustice, Member of Parliament for Camborne, Redruth and Hayle, has today welcomed the news that Cornwall Council will be receiving £12,589,000 ring-fenced for pothole repair. This is part of a share of £500million allocated to Councils across England for highways maintenance.
The new funding comes as the second of 5 equal instalments from the £2.5 billion Potholes Fund, providing £500 million a year between 2020/21 and 2024/25, announced by the Chancellor in the 2020 Budget – and is part of wider funding the DfT provides for road maintenance, totalling over £1.1 billion across England in 2021/22.
With the average pothole costing around £50 to fill in, the funding will ensure that the equivalent of 10 million potholes can be rectified, making thousands of local roads both safer and easier to drive and cycle on.
Following the announcement, George said, "I welcome this new funding demonstrating we are keeping to our 2019 manifesto commitment to improve our roads. In rural areas such as Cornwall, it can often it is difficult to maintain our roads. However, this new funding, as part of the National Infrastructure strategy shows the governments commitment to supporting rural communities."
Conservative Shadow Portfolio Holder for Transport Philip Desmonde also added, "I am delighted to see this Conservative Government continue to provide the funding for local authorities to help them in the never-ending quest to fill potholes and keep our roads safe.
"With the average pothole costing around £50 to fill in, the funding will ensure that the equivalent of more than 250,000 potholes can be rectified, making local roads across Cornwall both safer and easier to drive and cycle on.
"As this funding is ring-fenced, this Liberal Democrat/Independent administration can’t go spending it on any of their daft projects either, so it is a real win for residents of Cornwall."
