Yorkshire’s potholes to be filled with £500m funding
YORKSHIRE’S 20,000 miles of roads will receive about £500m over the next six years to keep them maintained and free of potholes.
The Department for Transport has announced funding of nearly £6bn for local authorities outside London to maintain their roads.
£4.7bn has been allocated according to need – although the formula is based on length and type of road, not on an assessment of the repairs and maintenance required – with a further £580m to be used to incentivise good asset management and efficiencies, and £575m reserved for a challenge fund for large one-off maintenance and renewal projects.
Local authorities have been given confirmed funding levels for the next three years, 2015-18, and expected levels of funding for the three subsequent years, 2018-21.
Yorkshire and the Humber will recieve £93.6m in 2015-16, followed by £85.8m and £83.2m in the following years. The region has then been provisionally allocated £75.3m for each of the three years in the period 2018-21.
If inflation met the Government’s 2% target each year, the funding would represent a £28m reduction in real terms by the final year of the funding period.
Cllr Peter Box, chairman of the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, which covers 6,000 miles of the region’s roads, said: “West Yorkshire’s joint bid will see over £80m of road improvements in the next three years. Well-maintained roads lead to better reliability and journey times for buses, freight and car users, helping to make West Yorkshire a place businesses want to invest in.
“The certainty of £81m over three years, with a possible further £71m over the three years after that, is welcome; but I’m disappointed that the maintenance budgets of the individual councils have been reduced to create this fund, at a time when councils are being asked to reduce funding for services, including day-to-day highway maintenance.”
Funding grants for 2015-21
Funding levels for 2018-21 are provisional.
| Authority | 2015-16 (£m) |
2016-17 (£m) |
2017-18 (£m) |
2018-21 (£m, annual) |
| Hull | 2.25 | 2.06 | 2.00 | 1.81 |
| East Riding | 11.0 | 10.13 | 9.82 | 8.89 |
| NE Lincolnshire | 2.00 | 1.83 | 1.77 | 1.61 |
| North Lincolnshire | 4.60 | 4.22 | 4.09 | 3.70 |
| York | 2.27 | 2.08 | 2.02 | 1.83 |
| North Yorkshire | 29.65 | 27.18 | 26.36 | 23.86 |
| Sheffield City Region | 12.57 | 11.52 | 11.17 | 10.11 |
| West Yorkshire | 29.21 | 26.78 | 25.97 | 23.51 |
