The Isle of Wight Council has been told it must start declaring how many potholes it is fixing and at what cost – or lose vital cash from the Government.
From mid-April, local authorities across England will start to receive their share of £1.6billion highway maintenance funding, including an extra £500million – enough to fill 7million potholes a year.
But to get the full amount, all councils – including the Isle of Wight Council – must now publish annual progress reports and prove public confidence in their work. Local authorities who fail to meet these strict conditions will see 25% of the funding uplift withheld.
The first report is expected to be published by the Council by 30th June, detailing how much they are spending, how many potholes they have filled, what percentage of the Island’s roads are in what condition, and how they are minimising streetworks disruption.
By the end of October, councils must also show they are ensuring communities have their say on what work they should be doing, and where.
Heidi Alexander, Transport Secretary, has said:
“After years of neglect we’re tackling the pothole plague, building vital roads and ensuring every penny is delivering results for the taxpayer.
Article continues below this advertisement “The public deserves to know how their councils are improving their local roads, which is why they will have to show progress or risk losing 25 per cent of their £500m funding boost.
“Our Plan for Change is reversing a decade of decline and mending our pothole-ridden roads which damage cars and make pedestrians and cyclists less safe.”
It has been confirmed this week that funding of £290million has been approved for improvements to Junction 9 of the M3, where the major motorway from Portsmouth/Southampton meets the A34.
The scheme has been more than 7 years in the making and will help reduce congestion, on a road that sees over 6,000 vehicles an hour pass through at peak times. The upgrade will see the create of 4 traffic lanes in each direction of the M3, as well as the provision of a same-direction free-flow link between the M3 and A34.
Well that will never happen with the council and island roads so called working together ( if you can call it working)
They will have to set up u huge department to do this as almost every road on the Island is unfit for purpose, most of the “potholes” are actually very badly finished roadworks.
What cowboy – yee-haw filled the step opposite the
Pier in Sandown!
My grandchild could have done a better job.
Too many inexperienced persons doing jobs
they cannot do!
Most interesting. An excellent example of continually refilled potholes is by the Central shop in Perowne Way, Sandown. It’s veritable patchwork quilt of tarmac and I’m sure will be of immense historical dating in years to come. Layer upon layer and looks absolutely shabby, shoddy, disgusting and demonstrative if the quality of workmanship.
But absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the flooding of the underground substrate rendering any major fix possible until that’s sorted. Clearly.
Doh. Impossible. Or was that a Freudian slip??
This section of Perowne Way needs urgent, complete resurfacing to ensure a lasting “fix”.
Whats the point make no difference.
It must be right tha Island r
Roads are held to account for how are delivering since they receive public money.