The Council has been pressed to move quickly to take advantage of a new £200 million fund to tackle potholes announced in this week’s Budget by Chancellor George Osborne.
Conservative councillors have written to the authority’s Chief Executive urging that the Council act swiftly to put together a bid for a share of the new funding pot.
In his budget statement on Wednesday, the Chancellor announced that the new fund would be created to help local authorities tackle potholes on local roads, but that Councils would need to put together bids to access a share of the funding.
The announcement of additional Government funding to tackle potholes comes following two-years’ of calls from Conservatives in Bath and North East Somerset for more action to be taken to address the state of roads in the area.
B&NES Conservative Group Leader Cllr Tim Warren said: “George Osborne’s announcement that he is creating an extra £200 million fund to tackle potholes is very welcome news. Some of our area’s roads are in an extremely poor and deteriorating state.
“However, the Chancellor made it clear that this money won’t be gifted to Councils, and instead local authorities will have to put forward bids to get a share of it.
“It is therefore vitally important that B&NES moves quickly to put together a bid to ensure that our area benefits from a share of this pothole funding, and I have written to the Chief Executive urging that officers takes advantage of this money.”
A Council Spokesman said: “The Council can confirm we will be making a bid for this money. This will be in addition to the £9.2 million that the Council is investing over a period of three years to win the war on potholes – this was agreed in February and was £2 million than originally planned.”
