East Sussex County Council secures £2.9 million for road repairs
The county council has secured £2.9 million towards maintenance and repairs of its roads, it announced.
East Sussex County Council said the money, which will support maintenance work including resurfacing and pothole repairs, is part of the incentive element of Department for Transport (DfT) funding which was dependent on the authority publishing a Transparency Report.
The county council added that it will also receive a £15.9 million baseline grant and could receive another £2.9 million later this year if it meets other DfT requirements including spending maintenance funding and publishing an updated policy for managing the highways network.
Cllr Peter Griffiths, the county council’s lead member for transport and environment, said: “I am pleased we have been able to meet the requirements set by the DfT to receive the maximum grant available to us, which will help us improve the standard of East Sussex roads, pavements, assets and structures.
“As well as qualifying us for the incentive element of the grant, the Highway Maintenance Transparency Report enables us to set out publicly an accurate picture of the condition of East Sussex roads, pavements, and structures, and the significant amount of work we are doing to keep the network running.”
He added: “It’s important to note that this is not new money. The DfT has replaced our annual block grant and one-off pothole grant with a single payment which includes the incentive grant.
“It will, along with money from council tax contributions, help us fund the work needed to maintain the highway network in East Sussex, but we need to be realistic about the level of funding that would be needed to bring almost 2,000 miles of road up to a high standard.”
The council said the Transparency Report sets out how the authority is maintaining and investing in its highway networks, including work on potholes and planned maintenance.
The council added that the report notes the condition of county roads, details the work being done to tackle potholes, how money is being spent, and planned work on roads, pavements, structures, drainage and streetlighting.