North Northamptonshire Council could spend £12m on highway maintenance

Steel Road in Corby, was described by one driver as "like the surface of the moon"

A council could make its largest-ever investment in highway maintenance.

More than £12m could be spent repairing, restoring and refreshing the highway network, as long as North Northamptonshire Council (NNC) members vote for the move next week.

NNC's cabinet has accepted government grants of almost £10m, with a further £1m from the scrapped phase two of HS2.

If approved, the money would be used to fix potholes and road signals and extend walking and cycling routes.

Some of the money will be spent on extending cycling routes in North Northamptonshire

The £10m offered by the government comes from various funding pots covering things like mending potholes, repairing bridges and adding safety features.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, a further £3m could also be incorporated into next year's budget from NNC's own resources.

Labour councillor Valerie Anslow told this week's NNC executive meeting about the plans and said: "This is the biggest investment in the highway network since 2021.

"I hope it won't all go on potholes because I'm sure we have all got examples in our area of holes being filled and after a short while the hole appears again."

"Due to underfunding for many years, there are many roads that are more holes than not."

More than £1m of the investment will come from the scrapped phase two of the HS2 railway line

Approximately £8m of the budget is planned to be spent on highway maintenance and the potholes fund, which supports routine upkeep of the highway network.

A total of £1.36m would be spent on extensions to the walking and cycling networks, the maintenance of traffic signals and implementing road safety measures.

It was anticipated that most of these schemes would be delivered by the council's highway services provider, Kier.

Some councillors at the executive meeting called the infrastructure giant's effectiveness into question and asked for it to be scrutinised.

Matt Binley, the executive member for highways, said regular meetings were held with Kier to "constantly" challenge the firm and "hold their feet to the fire" regarding performance.