Southend-on-Sea City Council has received additional funding which has and will continue to be used to improve our roads and was made possible by reallocated HS2 funding.
The additional funding includes:
- £309,200 from the 2023 Budget declaration, that was used in year 2023/24
- £219,000 reallocated from HS2 funding for both years 2023/24 and 2024/25
Like many local authorities, Southend-on-Sea faces the issue of keeping its network in a safe manner, while road conditions and potholes continue to cause public upset. Therefore, we decided this was the best area to invest this extra funding in.
The extra funding has enabled us to deliver improvements across the whole city. All roads, where defects to be repaired have been identified, have benefited.
We have been able to switch all our pothole repairs to a more permanent basis during 2023. This will:
- make the repairs last longer, avoiding repeat works during the year
- enable the works to be planned and delivered in a more efficient and cost-effective way
The improvements are already being to show, and we have now increased our pothole repair numbers from 787 in 2022 to 2037 in 2023. This is the highest number of repairs in a year since our new system of recording was setup in 2019.
We hope this major improvement will help to improve the safety of our roads for all users.
We will continue to invest additional funding made available for 2024/25 in this area.