Mayor launches £60m pothole repair programme

The mayor of Greater Manchester has unveiled a £60m pothole repair programme, saying people from all 10 boroughs had complained to her about the issue.

Bev Craig said funding would be made available to all of the boroughs and it would be enough to repair and maintain over a million square metres of road.

Craig had promised to repair more roads and make sure pavements were safe during her election campaign.

But Rod Dennis from the RAC said what was needed to fix "Britain's pothole woes, and those we see in Manchester, is guaranteed long-term funding over many, many years".

Dennis called for "an end to the kind of patch and dash approach which we've seen some councils employ and proper planning to get the roads back to where they need to be".

Craig said 2.5 billion journeys were made across the roads of Greater Manchester every year "and we need to properly invest in them and this is about getting money out of the door quickly to fix the things that people have been complaining to me about".

Dave Rigby, who runs a garage in Eccles, told BBC North West Tonight that potholes were "quite a big factor", with vehicles often brought in there every day for repairs as a result of them.

He said they could damage a vehicle's suspension as well as damaging tyres and wheel alignment and tracking.

"From a business point of view, obviously we do make money off it but, for customers, the cost of living's gone up and stuff, so, obviously, if the roads are better it's more money in people's pockets," he said.

Transport for Greater Manchester said the allocated funding would be enough to repair and maintain over a million square metres of road, helping to tackle existing issues and resurface roads and pavements to prevent them from deteriorating in the first place.

It said damaged sections of roads and pavements were "a common and frustrating issue affecting drivers across the country", as well as walkers and cyclists.

The funding is being divided across all 10 boroughs as follows:

• Bolton - £6.55m
• Bury - £4.37m
• Manchester - £8.16m
• Oldham - £5.26m
• Rochdale - £5.24m
• Salford - £5.39m
• Stockport - £6.82m
• Tameside - £4.98m
• Trafford - £4.99m
• Wigan - £8.24m

Craig said these amounts were worked out using a formula "based on how many roads you've got and the length of roads. Across Greater Manchester 125km of roads exist".

She said the way it had been shared out across local authorities was simply "the more roads you have, the more money you get".

The extra funding comes from existing transport budgets and follows a national increase in government funding for pothole repairs.

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