Pothole repairs get £50m fund but much more needed

Some pothole works would start immediately, Newcastle City Council said

A council has pledged £50m in a bid to its rampant pothole problem, but acknowledged much more is needed.

Newcastle City Council previously estimated it would cost £251m to return the region's roads and pavements to an "acceptable standard".

The council leader, Labour's Karen Kilgour, admitted the new cash would not be enough on its own, but that it would be used to tackle the most urgent repairs first including along Scotswood Road

Projects under An initial £1m has been allocated for projects which will would begin "immediately" and Kilgour said she would continue to lobby the government for further cash.

Council officers have been tasked with drawing up priorities for allocating the £50m, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

The initial £1m will fund works on some of the worst-affected roads in Newcastle, including:

• A193 Shields Road – carriageway resurfacing

• A186 Station Road – carriageway resurfacing

• C110 Tyne View – carriageway resurfacing

• Regent Farm Road – carriageway resurfacing

• Dremsheugh Place – Footpath scheme

• A595 Scotswood Road – carriageway resurfacing

Colin Ferguson, Liberal Democrat opposition leader, said the funding would "barely touch the sides" of what was required to maintain the roads and pavements long term.

He said his party had "long been critical of the council's limited attention to a spiralling backlog" of repairs needed.

The government previously announced £1.6bn for local authorities to fix potholes in 2025/26.

However, just £21.7m of that cash came to the north-east of England to be distributed across Northumberland, Tyne and Wear and County Durham by the North East Combined Authority.

Newcastle council said the funding it received for roads maintenance had failed to match the cost of all required work "for a number of years".

Concerns have also been raised that some pothole repairs were not up to standard, leading to repeated problems in the same locations.

In response to this, some of the cash will be used to fund new materials and techniques, the council said.

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