Torbay’s highways will benefit from the Department for Transport’s annual round of capital funding to assist highway authorities in the repair of potholes and the protection of local roads.

For the 2018/19 financial year Torbay Council has been allocated £163,000 under the ‘Flood Resilience Fund’. This may be used to fund works to either repair potholes or to carry out preventative maintenance works to protect local roads from the effects of severe weather.

Councillor Robert Excell, Executive Lead for Community Services, said “We are pleased to receive this increased grant towards our road repairs for this year. It comes at a time when we are already seeing the effects to our road surfaces from the recent severe winter weather, which has caused a noticeable increase in potholes forming.”

Whilst any assistance with funding road repairs is very welcome, this funding will only provide a relatively small contribution towards the significant and increasing backlog of road repairs that Torbay is facing. Unfortunately, the overall condition of our roads will continue to deteriorate without significant investment.

Some of this additional funding will be used to carry out repairs caused by the effects of the recent winter weather that affected Torbay. Much of the funding, however will be used on preventative maintenance methods to stop the formation of potholes. Preventative maintenance treatments can have long term benefits for Torbay’s highways, keeping road surfaces sealed against water ingress and safe, these measures are also more cost effective.

Torbay Council will continue to carry out routine and emergency inspections of the road network to identify defects, which meet the criteria for repairs. The Highways team would like to advise the public to report any defects to a road, street or pavement that makes it unsafe. You can report issues such as potholes, road flooding, overgrown vegetation, street lighting and damaged pavements by visiting the highways fault page.