Selaine Saxby, MP for North Devon has raised the issue of North Devon’s potholes numerous times in Westminster, and in today’s budget the Chancellor mentioned her and Devon parliamentary colleagues Anne-Marie Morris MP and Sir Gary Streeter MP that had been lobbying for additional financial support for Devon County Council to fix the shocking state of our roads, following this winter’s weather.
Ms Saxby also raised the pothole predicament in her debate last week on Decarbonising Rural Transport, and again in the Estimates Day Debate, not to mention in her meeting with the Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt.
The Chancellor said today:
“Following a wet then cold winter, I have also received particularly strong representations from my hon. Friends the Members for North Devon (Selaine Saxby), for South West Devon (Sir Gary Streeter) and for Newton Abbot (Anne Marie Morris), as well as Councillor Peter Martin from my own constituency, about the curse of potholes. The spending review allocated £500 million every year to the potholes fund, but today I have decided to increase that fund by a further £200 million next year to help local communities tackle this problem.”
Selaine said of today’s announcement:
“I have been contacted by residents right across North Devon, as well as councillors across the political spectrum about the state of our roads. Our County Council has already extended budgets and is working hard to get repairs done, but it was clear additional funds were needed to address the scale of the problem this year, and I am delighted that the Chancellor has heard calls from across Devon to facilitate these vital repairs.”
Today’s budget sees £9.4M additional funding come to Devon County Council for these repairs and I very much hope that this will enable repairs to be rapidly undertaken, having again contact the Highways Department this week about my own personal experiences on our roads, particularly the A361, which I recognise is hard to report specific problems on. However, please do ensure you report any potholes here https://www.devon.gov.uk/roadsandtransport/report-a-problem/report-a-pothole/ ”
