The UK Council must show that they are improving roads and working on what the government calls the “pothole plague” or losing millions of pounds in funds.
The Ministry of Transport (DFT) said local government road maintenance pots will increase by £500 million from mid-April.
However, the UK Council has said it must issue an annual report detailing progress on the pothole revision and lose a quarter of its extra funds.
The Local Government Association (LGA), which represents the council, said the government should focus on precautions rather than amending potholes.
The LGA estimates that clearing the country’s road repair backlog will take more than a decade and will cost around £17 billion to fix it.
According to RAC data, there are six pot holes per road in the UK and Wales.
All UK local governments will get 75% of the promised extra cash, but if the council does not publish a report on road maintenance, the remaining 25% will be withheld, including details on the progress of pothole filling.
The modest funding will instead be given to councils that believe DFT has made proven progress.
This policy applies only to the Council of the UK as it is a matter of delegated funding to local governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Kiel said the broken roads “not only risk lives, but also cost avoidable vehicles repairs, if not hundreds of pounds, to labor families, drivers and businesses.”
He added that the council has cash to take on jobs.
But Lucy Nessinga, Cambridgeshire County Council leader and chairman of the LGA’s liberal Democratic group, told the BBC that the amount was “close to what you need.”
“The meaning of us not using it well is useless,” she said. The government added that “it has been announced several times and will not help to raise public belief in politics.”
“It’s not clear that there will be extra money as a result of this announcement. There will be an extra deficit and I don’t think it will be useful,” she said.
She said the government had “re-announced” across England to fix roads in Cambridgeshire alone, but the council had a £410 million shortfall.
“Our roads are like a pair of worn trousers. You can keep the holes in place, but what you really need is a new pair of trousers. In this case, a proper resurfacement.”
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said “we don’t pretend that the money we have available fills every pothole.”
Asked whether withholding cash from some councils would make things worse for drivers in some areas, she said she expected most local governments to “comply with these requirements.”
“We want the council to be open and honest about the money being spent.
Under government rules, the council must provide details on how much they are spending, how many pot holes are filled, and the long-term road maintenance plan in reports that need to be published by the end of June.
By the end of October, the council must also demonstrate that the community has been consulted about where repairs should be made.
The DFT added that the council “does not meet these strict conditions” will withhold 25% of the funds.
During the election campaign, Labour has pledged to repair potholes of up to 1 million people a year in the UK.
The LGA said “everyone will benefit from ensuring that public funds are fully used.”
“This includes the government playing its full role by using spending reviews to ensure that councils receive sufficient long-term funding certainty, so that efforts can be focused on far more cost-effective precautions rather than reactively locking up more expensive potholes,” he added.
Shadow Transport Secretary Gareth Bacon described the government’s announcement as “pot holes are pasting plaster.”
He states:
Liberal Democratic transport spokesperson Paul Kohler called for a “more sustainable approach” to repairs, saying that fixing individual potholes was welcomed but did little to deal with “collapsing road infrastructure.”
