CORNWALL Council has welcomed a one-off grant of £10million from the government for potholes and road repairs but says that more regular funding is needed.

The Government announced this week that Cornwall Council will get £10.056m from a £71m pot of funding for the whole of the South West.

Cornwall’s share of the funding was the second highest of any council in the region with just Devon getting more with £18.7m.

The money has come from a £420m investment in roads which was announced by the Chancellor in last month’s budget.

Cornwall Council had already announced its own plans to invest £30m in repairs in May which was put in place to tackle some of the problems which had been caused by severe weather last winter which caused more potholes.

Geoff Brown, Cabinet member for transport, said: “A regular road maintenance programme rather than reactive repairs is what we need. So rather than give us one off funding, however welcome in the short term, we need the Government to increase our budget so we can carry out a planned highway maintenance programme.  I hope that, like the council, the Government will sustain this increased level of investment in future years so that we can continue to jointly work to improve Cornwall’s road network.

 “Here in Cornwall we have a growing backlog of road maintenance and repairs which now totals £270m. We have over 4,500 miles of road in Cornwall and despite the challenges we face, we are rated amongst the top 25% in the country for keeping our roads in good repair. We achieve this because we target our resources at maintaining our roads and we now have an extra £30m over three years so that wherever possible we prevent the formation of potholes in the first place.”

Cllr Brown added: “I was pleased to be able to report at the last Cabinet meeting that, following the horrendous damage done to our roads last winter which meant that we were behind schedule in making pot hole repairs, we are now back on track.  In fact, in October we exceeded our target for fixing potholes within the 48-hour time frame from receiving a report of a pothole to fixing it, with 99% being repaired.”

In announcing the government funding roads minister Jesse Norman said: “Potholes are a huge problem for all road users, and too often we see issues occurring at the same place time after time.

“That is why the Government is investing more in improving our roads than at any time before – £15 billion between 2015 and 2020 and a further £28.8 billion to 2025. Plus an immediate extra £420 million for potholes and local road maintenance just this year.

“The South West will be getting an extra £71 million this winter to keep its roads in good condition to keep drivers and cyclists safe.”