£2 million to be spent on urgent road repairs in Nottinghamshire

The roads have been identified by Nottinghamshire County Council and its highways partner, Via East Midlands, because their condition has rapidly deteriorated due to the recent wet weather and urgent action is needed to maintain the safety of motorists and other road users.

Recent surveys of the highway network show that 15.9% of the county’s roads are in a poor condition and require urgent maintenance, while 21.7% are likely to need repairs ‘soon’.

Work at the sites will begin as soon as possible and inspections are being carried out at other known hotspots in addition to the 35 roads already identified.

The announcement was made by Councillor Bert Bingham, Nottinghamshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Transport and Environment, during a meeting Full Council on Thursday (26 February).

He said: “After years of under investment in the county’s roads, many are in a poor condition. The recent wet wintery weather has caused more damage, and residents are rightly frustrated by the abundance of potholes.

“I can assure them that Nottinghamshire County Council is taking this very seriously and today I approved 35 sites for urgent resurfacing.

“This work will cost approximately £2 million and will be funded from underspends and efficiency savings from within the current highway budgets.

“We know that there are a lot more than 35 sites that need maintenance work and many residents will be asking ‘what about my road?’.

“Therefore, this is just the start, and in a few weeks’ time we will be publishing our highway maintenance programme which will set out all the roads that will be repaired and resurfaced for the next three years.”

In addition to this significant investment in improving Nottinghamshire’s roads, there will also be a drive towards carrying out permanent pothole repairs the first time instead of temporary repairs.

The county council says it will also assess the materials it uses for road repairs to make sure they ‘last and stand the test of time’.

Council Leader, Cllr Mick Barton, said: “The level of decay of our roads is shocking, due to the decades of underfunding which has been nowhere near enough to get them up to scratch and the standards residents’ demand.

“We will continue to lobby Government, the Mayor, Claire Ward, and EMCCA (East Midlands Combined County Authority) to secure more funding to plough investment into our network of roads.

“This is a necessary and welcome starting point, and we know the public want urgent action and that is why we’re providing this emergency funding to tackle some of the worst-affected roads in Nottinghamshire.”