Shropshire potholes fund is short by millions

Telford & Wrekin Council today revealed it faces a £6.4 million shortfall in the amount of money needed to repair its roads. And at Shropshire Council expenditure on roads is predicted to fall by more than £2 million a year

Officials blame a lack of funding from central government, with Telford & Wrekin saying it receives less than a sixth of the amount needed to keep roads up to an acceptable standard. The council says it needs to spend at least £10 million a year to address its maintenance backlog and keep the roads to a high standard – but only gets around £1.6 million from the Department for Transport.

It has earmarked an extra £2 million from its own funds, but this will still fall short of what is needed.

The news comes as the Local Government Association reveals the amount of time it would take to fix England's roads has soared by almost a third in the past decade. The LGA said it would now take 14 years to clear the backlog of road repairs in England, excluding London, compared with 10.9 years in 2006.

Telford & Wrekin Council spokesman Russell Griffin said: "

In this year's National Highways & Transport Survey, Telford & Wrekin residents ranked the condition of local roads as their top transport priority, yet we do not receive enough funding from central government to maintain them as well as we would like.

"The council recognises the importance of a well maintained road network for those who live, work and travel through the borough and we have chosen to provide an additional £2 million each year specifically for road maintenance. Alongside local authorities across England, we are looking to central government to give us increased funding in order to make the borough an even better place for local people."

Shropshire Council was unable to comment on its Department for Transport funding. But it has already revealed that it is in the process of finding a new company to carry out its roads and environmental maintenance work. It says financial constraints mean the contract will be worth £17.9 million a year – £2.3 million less than at present.

Last month it emerged that councils in Shropshire had paid out £100,000 in compensation to people injured as a result of driving over potholes.

Telford & Wrekin Council forked out nearly £80,000 to seven people injured on borough roads from 2011 up to March this year. And Shropshire Council handed over more than £20,000 to six claimants.

A report published this year by the Asphalt Industry Alliance found that it would cost £11.8 billion to repair roads in England and Wales to a reasonable standard.

The LGA said almost two million potholes are fixed each year. It called on the Treasury to announce in next month's Autumn Statement that a further £1 billion a year will be injected into roads maintenance.

It claims this could be achieved by investing just two pence per litre from existing fuel duty revenue and described the situation as Britain's "roads crisis".