Lincolnshire County Council hopes the government will allocate HS2 money for pothole repairs

A council has pledged to do “the best we can with the money we’ve got” to repair potholes.

Lincolnshire County Council is hoping that £260 million of funds from the government’s cancelled HS2 project will be reallocated to local authorities as a matter of priority.

The promise was made by the previous Conservative administration as a pledge for the 2024 General Election, which was eventually won by a Labour.

Despite the change of government, Lincolnshire’s authority would like to see the money distributed to councils for roads maintenance as highways teams up and down the country struggle to keep roads in optimal condition with the resources available to them.

The county council’s highways budget for 2024/25 is about £19 million and contractors are expecting to repair 290 miles of road, fix 110,500 potholes, clean 200,000 drains and rebuild 101 miles of public footpaths during the year.

Despite this, backs are against the wall in terms of funding for this with the county council still trying to plug budget gaps brought about by years of consistent government cuts.

Earlier this year, the county council estimated that Lincolnshire would need around £40 million a year extra funding from the government to clear the pothole backlog plaguing the county.

The previous Conservative government pledged to invest £262 million from the cancelled HS2 project into roads maintenance for local authorities across the country, but this was done ahead of the General Election.

A new government has now taken office and Lincolnshire County Council is calling for Labour to consider upholding this pledge.

Councillor Richard Davies (Con), executive member for highways, said: “We’re still waiting to find out whether the new Labour government will honour the previous government’s commitment to reallocate a £262 million portion of cancelled HS2 funding towards improving Lincolnshire’s roads.

“If they do it will mean a 30-40% increase in our maintenance budget over seven years, allowing us to build on the work we’re currently doing – including filling 1,000 potholes a week.

“In the meantime, we’re going to keep chipping away at the number of roads and footpaths that are in disrepair throughout the county as best we can with the money we’ve got.”

A recent Freedom of Information request revealed that Lincolnshire County Council has paid out more than £4 million in compensation on vehicle damage, as a result of road conditions, since 2018.

The £1.15 million payout figure of the last two years is the equivalent of 732 annual council tax bills for Band D property residents in Lincolnshire, as per the 2024/25 county council budget.

In 2023, almost 18,000 pothole-related reports were made in Lincolnshire, of which 75% were completed fully by the council highways team.

Any decisions on reallocated funding from the government would be expected in the autumn statement at the end of October.