Sandwell Council has welcomed half a million pounds of extra government highways funding and pledged to put the money directly into this year’s budget.
In October, following the decision to curtail HS2, ministers pledged to put an ‘additional’ £8.3bn into local authority highway maintenance from 2023-24 to 2033-34. This included relatively small uplifts for the current financial year and 2024-25.
Sandwell Council has now been allocated £509,000, which is its share of £2,586,000 distributed via the West Midlands Combined Authority for 2023-24.
It said the cash will be spent on resurfacing roads, cycleways and footways and maintaining bridges, as well as preventing potholes and other road defects.
Our 2023 surface treatment programme is well underway. Recent work focussed on Hagley Road West & Wolverhampton Road; this work helps preserve roads & reduce the risk of potholes forming. Road markings will be remarked overnight this week. We think they're looking much better! pic.twitter.com/GjyKDYG2sS
— Sandwell Highways (@sandwellroads) June 5, 2023
The council’s cabinet member for environment and highways, Danny Millard, said: ‘Our roads are extremely important to our local community, and we already have a lot to be proud of. Sandwell consistently ranks highly, both regionally and nationally, in terms of carriageway maintenance and road conditions.
‘Sandwell Council has already committed to spending £9.1m on maintaining our roads and highways in 2023/2024. This extra funding will allow to us to sustain these high standards, giving our residents safer and easier journeys boroughwide.’
A spokesperson for the council confirmed that the additional cash will be added to the current year’s highways budget, bringing it up to £9.6m.
Writing in Highways in November, Mark Stevens, assistant director, direct services at Haringey Council and chair of the ADEPT Engineering Board, suggested that some councils struggling to spend the new cash during the current financial year might 'profile' (i.e. hold back) any contribution they were planning to make from their own funds.
This, he explained, could help to mitigate what would otherwise be a fall in funds, when this year’s one-off £200m Potholes Fund cash boost – worth more than next year’s Network North uplift – is no longer available.
