THE county council has responded after it was revealed that Hampshire is to benefit from an extra £132m to fix roads and potholes over the next 10 years.

As previously reported, on Friday, November 17, transport secretary Mark Harper set out the allocations of an £8.3bn national long-term plan, enough to resurface over 5,000 miles of road across the country over the next 11 years. 

Local highway authorities in the southeast, including Hampshire, will each receive a share of the £734m which they can use to fix roads. 

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This will see Hampshire County Council receive an extra £132m between 2023/24 and 2033/34.

The money awarded has been redirected from HS2 fund, after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak axed the northern leg of the long-awaited high-speed rail network last month, blaming doubling costs. 

Across the south east, local highway authorities will receive £23.4m this financial year, followed by a further £23.4m for 2024/2025, with the rest of the funding allocated through to 2034.

The funding also comes on top of the local transport, road and rail budgets allocated at the last spending review and in addition to what local authorities were already expecting for the next decade.

Hampshire County Council’s cabinet member for universal services, Cllr Nick Adams-King, said: "This is welcome news for Hampshire and follows significant lobbying by the county council to make the case for additional money, nationally, to help reverse the deterioration of our roads after years of underfunding.

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"Having a 10-year settlement confirmed enables us to plan ahead carefully with more certainty, and to allocate and prioritise resources more effectively. The money will help to tackle the challenges of unprecedented demand, soaring inflation, and the impacts of heavy rain, flooding and sub-zero temperatures.

"The county council has already allocated £22.5 million of its own money over the next three years to repair potholes and other defects and this is already helping to make our roads stronger ahead of another potentially difficult winter period.

"Working with our highways contractor, Milestone, extra frontline resources have been drafted in to repair more road defects following a dramatic and sustained increase in reported issues.”