Local highways maintenance funding

Pothole Action Fund 2016/17

In April 2016 the Department of Transport announced a £250 million Pothole Action Fund to improve local roads and deliver better journeys by targeting potholes on the local road network.

Funding has been allocated according to the size of the local road network and Newcastle City Council has been allocated £152,000 in 2016/17.

It was agreed that this funding should be focused on providing planned patching and resurfacing works to the Coast Road in North Heaton ward.

The Coast Road is a key part of our strategic network, connecting North Tyneside and the wards to the east to the City Centre but recent condition surveys showed that there was a significant length in poor condition and this was backed up by the number of pothole repairs that have recently been undertaken on this length of network.

Along with some additional funding this has enabled over 9,000m2 of road to be resurfaced. These works will increase the expected life of the road, improve the overall condition of the network and reduce the number of potholes forming.

In December 2012 the Department for Transport allocated £215million to local highway authorities in England for essential maintenance to renew, repair and extend the life of the highway network. Of this funding, Newcastle City Council received £414,000 in 2013/14 and £219,000 is allocated for 2014/15.

The funding for 2013/14 has been spent on a planned patching programme to complement existing day to day repairs and planned improvements across the road network.

The patching programme consisted of machine laid surfacing to permanently repair some of the worst affected sections of streets and junctions across Newcastle. This will avoid costly and disruptive repeated pothole repairs in the future.

Streets Repaired

• Adelaide Terrace
• Aisgill Drive
• Beaconsfield Street
• Bedeburn Road
• Benwell Lane
• Brinkwell Lane
• Brinkburn Street
• Brunton Grove
• Burdon Terrace
• Chapel House Drive
• Cheviot Mount
• Coach Road
• Downend Road
• Fossway
• Grace Street
• Hallow Drive
• Hartley Court
• Heaton Road
• Hexham Road
• Killingworth Road
• Kingsley Terrace
• Larkspur Terrace
• Linhope Road
• Mill Lane
• Nansen Close
• Newburn Road
• North Walbottle Road
• Ottershaw
• Pease Avenue
• Philliphaugh
• Ponteland Road
• Scrogg Road
• Shieldfield Lane
• Stamfordham Road
• Stanhope Street
• Tyne View
• West Denton Way

Additional funding: severe weather recovery

Following the wettest winter on record, the Department of Transport allocated extra funding to help highway authorities repair damage to local roads following the recent prolonged period of bad weather in late 2013/early2014.

The total amount of extra funding for local highway authorities in England was £103.5m. This represents a significant extra investment in highway maintenance and was allocated based on road length of each authority.

Newcastle City Council received £282,923 as their share of the extra funding. It is recommended that the funding is allocated to support the following programme of works:

A189 Barrack Road

Supplement existing flood damage funding to carry out additional planned patching to improve and extend the repairs to this road that have been damaged by severe weather. 

Planned patching programme

Carry out a planned patching programme across the principal and classified network in localised areas where the road has deteriorated due to prolonged severe weather. This will increase the expected life of the roads, improve the overall condition of the network and reduce the number of potholes forming. The schemes will be selected on current condition data and prioritised according to local needs.

Pothole repairs

Support the on-going maintenance budget to carry out pothole repairs across the city to ensure safer and smoother journeys.

Highway Maintenance funding October 2018

In October 2018  the Chancellor announced in his Budget that the Government was allocating a further £420 million of new money for local highways maintenance. This new money is for the repair of roads including potholes, bridges and local highways infrastructure.

From the allocation of £1.203m given to Newcastle City Council  we will be targeting this additional funding for highway maintenance.

This will include repairs to key highway structures, including Tyne Bridge, Newburn Bridge and Cut Bank bridge. We will also be improving the road and footpaths conditions on our local network with a focus on residential areas alongside a programme of planned patching.