Derbyshire’s highways chief says the government's claim that £76m will be set aside to to repair the roads in the county and Nottinghamshire is ‘smoke and mirrors’ – claiming most of the money simply reflects a usual maintenance grant.
Cllr Charlotte Cupit, Cabinet Member for highways assets and transport at Conservative-led Derbyshire County Council, claims the county council which oversees the county’s roads is still waiting on clarity over the exact amount it is likely to receive. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced on December 20 that it is to provide £1.6bn towards road maintenance to be divided between each relevant highways council – with nearly £76m being allocated for the East Midlands Combined County Authority to share across Derbyshire County Council, Derby City Council, Nottinghamshire County Council and Nottingham City Council.
But Cllr Cupit said: “I’m afraid the Prime Minister’s warm words alone won’t fill potholes or resurface roads. The announcement by the Government of the highways funding allocations for next year just before Christmas sadly seems to be largely smoke and mirrors and far from a present.
“The bulk of this money appears to be the usual highways maintenance grant we would receive from Government each year, except we’re now still waiting on clarity on the exact amount that Derbyshire will get from the [East Midlands] Mayor – and it risks being wrapped up in bureaucracy and form filling to prove we need the money for our roads and that we’ll use it on resurfacing.”
The Government claims each local authority in England will receive a cut of the budget for the next financial year – which it says will be £500m higher than the previous sum.
But the Department for Transport has said it will be holding back 25per cent of the £500m uplift as an incentive until councils have shown that they were ‘delivering’ to make sure authorities spent the money wisely and maintained roads to avoid further potholes.
In the meantime, each local authority is being encouraged to identify which of their roads are in most need of repair for when they receive their share of the funding for the 2025/26 financial year to deliver immediate fixes for communities and raise living standards.
Cllr Cupit added: “It seems so far that Derbyshire’s share of the £76m will be similar to what we usually get, or risks even being a reduction, as it appears to incorporate the pothole funds we’ve been receiving, and sadly still doesn’t recognise the extreme weather events, record rainfall or landslips we have to deal with.
“It also doesn’t take into account the reduced funding we’ve had for our roads from Government this year or the apparent mothballing of the £176 million that would’ve been for Derbyshire roads alone that was promised by the previous Government. We remain in limbo over what money we’ll get for our highways in future.”
Concerned Cllr Cupit previously apologised in January, 2024, for the state of Derbyshire’s pothole-ridden roads at that time which was put down to reduced investment, ageing highways, floods and freezing conditions during the winter months.
And following £1.1m of work on a new asphalting road treatment programme and the introduction of a new pothole repairing material called Roadmender Asphalt, Derbyshire County Council announced in September, 2024, that it was set to accept £3.014m of Labour Government funding towards roads maintenance and resurfacing.
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