Labour concern over pothole funding

Northumberland County Council has given a cautious welcome to government pothole funding.

The government recently announced a total of £3.25m for the North East Combined Authority (NECA) area to tackle potholes over the coming year - with £1.3m coming to Northumberland - which has the longest road network of the local authorities in the region.

However just three years ago Northumberland got £5.6m in similar road repair funding.

Business chair Councillor Scott Dickinson said: “While we welcome any funding to help improve our road network, the government should be cautious about singing their own praises when in fact this level of funding is around a quarter of what we received in 2014.

“Saying that, we have teams of highly skilled staff and state-of-the-art equipment that enable us to repair potholes effectively and cheaply,”

Last year the council repaired over 53,000 potholes across the county.

Cllr Dickinson: “We know how vital our road network is and we are committed to doing all we can to tackle potholes for everyone who lives, visits or works in Northumberland.

“With over 3,000 miles of road to look after, eradicating every single pothole is always going to be a challenge, but our investment means we will be repairing thousands of defects ahead of the summer season and throughout the year.”