By Lauren Monaghan, Junior Local Democracy Reporter
Nottinghamshire County Council has confirmed the spending of an extra £4.8 million over the next year on repairing roads left badly damaged by last winter’s storms.
The future plans for the maintenance and repair of Nottinghamshire roads were discussed in the council’s Cabinet meeting today (July 25).
The most recent winter drastically affected roads up and down the country, with Storm Babet and Storm Henk leaving some routes cluttered with potholes and in need of heavy repairs.
Back in April, Cabinet member for Transport and Environment Cllr Neil Clarke (Con) approved extra investment for Nottinghamshire’s drainage infrastructure which aims to aid the damage to road caused by flooding.
Around £467,000 had already been allocated in April to improve drain emptying and ditch clearance works.
From this funding, four extra drain cleaning teams have been employed, targeting sites that have been particularly affected by flooding.
More than 25 schemes focusing on ditch cleaning and drainage improvements have already been completed.
The council hopes the further £4.8 million will prepare Nottinghamshire’s roads for this winter and stave off even more severe damage.
Cllr Keith Girling (Con) said: “We have invested a lot of extra money into the roads, we do recognise that it’s a problem.
“I think it’s important the public understand that, that money has got to come from somewhere… and some of the money we’ve spent is on saving people’s lives.
“It’s not just a case of throwing money at it, because we don’t have that money, it’s got to come from somewhere.
“I think the combined authority needs to step up to the plate, the [County Council] has pledged money into the [roads], the current mayor said that she would as well, we need to hold her to that.”
Repairing Nottinghamshire’s roads will be a joint effort between the County Council and the new East Midlands Combined Authority, headed up by regional mayor Claire Ward (Lab).
Speaking after the meeting County Council Leader, Ben Bradley (Con), has said improving the county’s roads is a top priority for the council over the next six months.
He said: “We know that last winter tore chunks out of the roads, and we’ve invested now getting on for £10 million over the course of this year, extra, as well as securing around £1 billion pounds worth of extra funding through the combined authority.
“Now we are lobbying the regional mayor for that additional funding.”
He added: “We know as an administration that the roads aren’t good enough.
“There is a national challenge around infrastructure funding, which is why we have secured around £1.5 billion additional investment for our transport network.
“I’m very clear I want a huge chunk of that to be invested into the highways.
“We’ve got plans now to deliver the quality of repairs people want to see even when the damage ramps up in the winter.
“There’s no perfect answer, 3,000 miles of road don’t get fixed overnight but I hope residents are already beginning to see examples of major resurfacing, like Peafield Lane in my own division in Mansfield.”
