HAMPSHIRE County Council has given a cautious welcome to the recent announcement on additional funding for highways maintenance.
Hampshire is in line for just over £2million from the government’s pothole fund, but at the same time is having to find revenue savings of over £5million in the highways maintenance service as a result of continued funding reductions.
The council’s executive member for environment and transport Cllr Rob Humby said: “It’s good news that the problem of potholes on the country’s roads has been recognised, but a great deal more investment is needed if we are to successfully tackle the backlog of repairs nationally.
“The £2million we have been allocated is not enough to address the issues we face, and continuing cuts in central government funding for Council services are forcing us to make difficult decisions around priorities and service reductions.
“With the huge sums government receives from motorists through various taxes, we believe that more money must be made available to help tackle the state of roads across the country.
“The council puts an extra £10million of investment in each year through our Operation Resilience road repair programme and we make the funding go as far as we can, by looking at the long term structure of the road, putting our efforts into long term repairs and preventative measures instead of more expensive reactive work.”