Extra £10m to be spent on road repairs

A roadworks signImage source, Getty
Image caption,

Roadworks for the project will begin in April 2024

  • Published

A council will spend a further £10m over the next two years maintaining and resurfacing roads.

Wiltshire Council's cabinet made the decision at a meeting on Tuesday.

The money will be spent on preventative maintenance and a road resurfacing programme including small repairs to highways and verge repairs on rural roads.

It is additional funding on top of the £14m the council is spending this financial year on highways maintenance.

Work on potholes will continue in parallel, using £2m of existing funds and an additional £3.6m grant from the government.

'A huge investment'

Councillor Caroline Thomas said the funding represented "a huge investment into improving the resilience and safety of Wiltshire’s roads".

“We manage around 2,700 miles (4345km) of road here in Wiltshire, and usually we can resurface around 40 to 80 miles each year.

"This new funding will enable us to resurface at least 130 miles of road each year, plus address deterioration in rural road verges, making it easier for people to get to where they want to go and helping to boost the local economy," she added.

The roads which need resurfacing will be identified before work begins in April 2024, with the programme running until the end of 2025.