Wiltshire road repairs worth £26m 'will make a big difference' according to council

Wiltshire Council has been given more than £26 million worth of government funding to spend on improving its roads.

The money will go towards resurfacing roads, new road markings, replacing traffic signs and filling potholes.

Wiltshire Council was awarded £22,924,000 for the highways maintenance and an additional £3,684,800 from the Department for Transport’s (DfT’s) Pothole Fund which will be used to target hotspots around the county.

It follows calls for more to be done to tackle Devizes' potholes.

Cllr Jonathan Hunter said: “I think it’s gone beyond potholes to be honest. It sounds a bit facetious, but there’s more potholes than road now.”

Meanwhile motorists in Marlborough also demanded action after damage was caused to hundreds of cars.

Cabinet Member for Transport Caroline Thomas said: “We welcome this maintenance funding from the Department for Transport, which will be used to improve Wiltshire’s highways network and to make our roads and footpaths safer for all users – important contributions to the council’s Business Plan objective of having vibrant, well-connected communities.

“We’ve also received an extra £3.6m to tackle potholes, which we will use to target problem areas in the county.

“We are creating heatmaps of the areas with the worst pothole problems and using this data to identify roads in most need, those local pothole hotspots.

“Unfortunately, the extra funding won’t solve all the pothole issues in the county, but the additional treatment, combined with our scheduled resurfacing programme, will make a big difference to the safety and ride quality of Wiltshire’s roads.

“This year’s Highways Maintenance Fund is the second part of a three-year settlement and, as such, is the same as last year.

"Considering current inflationary pressures, this will present a challenge but, as always, we will look at efficient ways to spend the funds to improve and maintain Wiltshire’s highways network.

“We have filled 11,130 potholes and completed 28 major resurfacing projects so far this financial year, and we hope to do more this year.

“To supplement our own survey work, we ask anyone who spots a highways issue to report it using the MyWilts app or via our website.”