Repair work on Cheshire East’s damaged road network is being boosted with a £500,000 cash injection.
Yesterday (Thursday), councillors accepted a motion put forward by Councillor Rod Menlove, Cabinet member with responsibility for environmental services, to set aside the money to help fix the highways.
The Council’s environmental services team handled an eight-fold increase in pothole reports in January and it believes the funds are essential to prevent further damage.
Cllr Menlove said: “Early indications are that the damage to our roads will be very significant by the end of this winter unless steps are taken to arrest deterioration immediately.
“The Council is again responding to the challenge of severe winter weather and we believe this money will go a long way to repairing our roads in this financial year.
“Whilst the numbers of defects are expected to increase during winter months, the current levels of potholes and extent of carriageway deterioration is far beyond the resources available for road maintenance without the additional funding.”
It comes as Central Government announced £100m of funding to councils to help them deal with potholes and ravaged road surfaces, of which Cheshire East expects to receive around £860,000.
Cheshire East’s engineers have been assessing the damage to the network and have pinpointed where the carriageway defects are.
The £500,000 will be spent on reactive maintenance gangs to clear any back log of defects and keep the roads open and safe and investment will be made on roads on a priority basis.
Residents should report any defects to Cheshire East’s online fault reporting page at www.cheshireeast.gov.uk or on 0300 123 5020.
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