By Andrew Topping, Local Democracy Reporter
Plans to invest an extra £15 million to improve the state of Nottinghamshire’s roads have been approved by councillors.
Nottinghamshire County Council will allocate the funding as it moves towards permanent solutions to road repairs and addresses more than 50 recommendations from its recent highways review.
The funding includes spending £12 million more over the next three years to double ‘patching teams’ from four to eight as it shifts towards a “right repair, right-first-time” approach.
An additional £2 million will be used to improve street lighting, with £1 million to address “climate emergency” issues.
It follows the cross-party highways review panel conducted last year to address what many councillors described as the “biggest issue on the doorstep” in last May’s election.
The panel sought independent reviews from highways consultant WSP and the Local Government Association (LGA), with both organisations recommending the authority move away from temporary pothole fixes.
At present, the authority’s contractor Via East Midlands frequently uses Viafix – a form of asphalt repair which temporarily fills potholes when they are identified.
The authority now plans to scale back its use but has insisted it will not be stopped completely – and is needed when emergency pothole repairs emerge.
The changes will couple a shift to a three-year rather than a one-year investment plan, to give residents “clarity” over when their roads will be repaired.
And it will also tackle pavements and smaller residential roads within the improvement plan.
Speaking before the funding was approved on Thursday (February 24), Councillor Neil Clarke (Con), chairman of the transport and environment committee, said: “It’s good news. The additional £15 million shows the administration is delivering on manifesto commitments.
“For residents, the state of the roads is their priority and for them, we listened. The review was cross-party and intensive, and I thank all the members who contributed.
“It’s doubling our patching teams, working hard to improve our roads and make them safer. It will make a major impact on vastly reducing Viafix repairs, and changing the emphasis to long-term, permanent repairs.
“It will never eliminate those urgent repairs completely because there will always be an emergency cropping up somewhere.”
Both the Labour Group and the Independent Alliance tabled amendments that would have altered how the funding is spent.
Labour’s amendment called for the £15 million pot to only be used “subject to review and approval of proposals by members”. The group wanted any expenditure to be costed before the cash could be signed off.
The Independent Group’s amendment called for the funding to be “super-charged” and essentially doubled, by scrapping the planned £15.7 million spending on new offices at Top Wighay Farm.
The group would then use the savings to give each district and borough an additional £2.1 million to improve the state of roads.
Both amendments were not given support by the Conservatives.
Speaking after her group’s amendment was voted down, Cllr Kate Foale, leader of the Labour group, said: “The Conservatives purport to already be doing what we have proposed, delivering a whole-road approach to road repair.
“In reality, they’re throwing good money after bad in their approach to fixing our highways, doing jobs twice which should have been finished correctly the first time.”
Cllr John Wilmott (Ash Ind), of the Independent Alliance, also believed his own group’s amendment should have been supported.
Raising concerns about the condition of Nottinghamshire’s roads, he said: “Our proposal would double this £15 million, and it has been stated that this won’t touch the sites due to the state of our roads and pavements. That’s right.
“The weather recently has decimated our roads with new potholes appearing all over the place.
“They have exposed the poor maintenance of our roads by the highways department, potholes are reappearing where they have just been repaired.”
But Cllr Ben Bradley MP (Con), leader of the council, backed the budget and said it is a “comprehensive plan of action”.
He added: “This will literally double our capacity to deliver better-quality, long-term repairs. It’s a proper, thought-out plan to deliver improvements over the long-term, not just shifting budgets around on a spreadsheet.”
