Shropshire Council given £11.6m to tackle potholes

The Department for Transport (DfT) is handing out £1.7 billion to councils through the newly-created Transport Infrastructure Investment Fund.

The funding will be added to Shropshire Council’s 2020/21 highways budget of £12.6m, giving a total of £24m for this financial year.

The council has taken advantage of the reduction in traffic during the coronavirus lockdown to repair more than 6,000 potholes since April 1.

Steve Davenport, Shropshire Council’s cabinet member for highways and transport, said: “We are delighted that the government has recognised that Shropshire’s roads require increased central investment and we are pleased to have received this additional £11.6m of funding. We fully understand the frustrations of our residents concerning the number of potholes which have occurred on our roads this winter.

"This additional funding will enable us to continue our priority to repair them most effectively and help us prevent them for reoccurring next winter by protecting our roads against future damage.

“I am grateful to all the hard work that our highways team and contractors have been undertaking to repair our roads during the coronavirus lockdown and we will continue with this good work to deliver better quality of roads for all our Shropshire communities.”

The additional award will enable Shropshire Council to continue to fix more potholes and other defects whilst undertaking more preventative work to stop potholes forming in the first place.

One of the techniques council crews use is Texpatching. Potholes are cleaned out, filled with a unique material called Texpatch, then covered with a neat, square patch.

It provides a longer-lasting, smoother, neater finish compared to traditional pothole repairs, and seals up all joints, which should result in an increased life span for the repair.

To report a pothole, use Shropshire Council's website: shropshire.gov.uk/roads-and-highways/highways-maintenance/pothole-maintenance-and-repair/.