Council to spend extra £6.6 million on making county's roads better

The Chancellor recently pledged an extra £420 million for road and Nottinghamshire's share of that will be £6.6 million, writes Coun John Cottee, chairman of the communities and place committee at Nottinghamshire County Council.
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Last year’s harsh winter took its toll on the county’s roads with the council’s highways team repairing 95,000 potholes between January and August.

So this additional money will mean the council can undertake further works to put right this damage and consider new plant and machinery for tackling the problem.

Pothole repairs will be a major part of the schemePothole repairs will be a major part of the scheme
Pothole repairs will be a major part of the scheme

The council has already approved £27.6 million to invest the county’s transport infrastructure which involves repairing more than 200 roads over the next financial year and improving Nottinghamshire’s 2,600 miles of road network.

Some of the schemes scheduled in include surface dressing on the B6139 Coxmoor Road in Kirkby, following highly successful structural patching works carried out by Via Operations.

This road was deemed prohibitively expensive to resurface due to its condition and length, but has been rescued to the point it can now be prepared, surface dressed and saved from further deterioration; resurfacing works on the A6191 Chesterfield Road South in Mansfield and surface dressing on the A6191 Rock Hill in Mansfield.

The council strives to provide the best possible value for money with road repairs and resurfacing by making the ‘right repair at the right time’ to avoid larger repair bills in years to come, cut congestion and make the roads safer.

And during the next 12 months, the council will be spending around £4.25 million of the four-year cash pot it set up this year to invest in the roads.

We councillors are well aware that potholes are a major problem for all road users and an understandably emotive subject.

But this extra cash, and the plans already in train, will go some way towards improving Nottinghamshire’s roads, seeing benefits for drivers and cyclists alike.