Government pledges millions to repair damaged roads

It could be good news for the Calder Valley which has been hit by a series of flood in recent years and comes in response to one of the worst winter’s on record nationally.

The money intended to support councils to fix the roads most damaged by severe weather and will be increased by £36.5 million, to £80 million.

On top of this, following the exceptionally severe weather of recent months, an extra £103.5 million is also being made available to all councils across England.

This is in addition to almost £900 million already made available for road maintenance this year, bringing total government investment allocated to road maintenance to more than £1 billion in 2013 to 2014.

Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin said: “Having the right infrastructure in place to support businesses and hardworking people is a crucial part of our long-term economic plan. This extra money will help make a real difference to the millions of road users and local residents who rely on local roads, giving them safer and smoother journeys.”

Councils have a responsibility to maintain their roads properly, but the exceptional weather has caused significant additional damage, increasing the amount of damage to the local road network. As the flood waters have receded and councils have been able to assess the impact, it is clear that the these have been particularly severe in certain areas.

This additional money will be allocated on a formula basis, and will be distributed to the majority of councils in England by the end of this week, to ensure that they can make use of it as soon as possible and complete works before the summer holidays.

In order to qualify for this extra funding, local authorities will be required to publish information on their websites by the end of August 2014 showing where this money has been spent.