Wiltshire Council receives £22m of Government funding for highways maintenance

Wiltshire Council has been awarded £22,924,000 from the Government's Highways Maintenance Fund for 2021/22 to pay for a range of highways maintenance and improvement programmes, including resurfacing, re-signing, new road markings, traffic signals and filling potholes.

This total includes the award of £9m from the Government's Pothole Fund, which will also be used for all aspects of highways maintenance throughout the coming financial year.

Cllr Bridget Wayman, Cabinet Member for Highways, said: "The Department for Transport has announced that Wiltshire will receive just under £23m from the Government's Highway Maintenance funding in the coming financial year.

"This is welcome funding that will be invested into improving Wiltshire's road network, making our roads both safer for motorists and cyclists. It covers several aspects of highways maintenance and improvements, including resurfacing, re-signing, new road markings, traffic signals and filling potholes.

"However, this funding award represents a significant fall of more than £6m on the previous year, and as such we will have to look at more efficient ways to spend the funding to improve and maintain Wiltshire's highways network.

"Our Highways officers will now prepare a report for Cabinet that will look at how we will spend this money and where we will prioritise, against our forward plan of proposed highways work.

"We filled over 20% more potholes in Wiltshire in 2020 compared to 2019, as reduced traffic levels often made it easier for our teams to complete repairs in a safe and COVID-secure way. We also completed 38 major resurfacing projects, and carried out more than 9 miles of verge overrun repairs, along with numerous highways draining and line marking projects.

"Anyone who spots a highways defect including potholes while they're using our road network should report it using the MyWilts smartphone app or on our website, and our officers will inspect the road defect and, if appropriate, fix it."

People can report highways defects and potholes by downloading the MyWilts smartphone app or at MyWilts online reporting.