During today’s Transport Questions in the House of Commons, Tom Randall MP asked the Secretary of State for Transport to join his campaign to carry on fixing Gedling’s roads by asking the Treasury for more funding to repair potholes.
Gedling’s Conservative Member of Parliament, Tom Randall said “Conservative-controlled Nottinghamshire County Council, in difficult financial circumstances, is endeavouring to spend millions, beyond its regular highways budget, on road repairs.”
Tom went on to ask the Transport Secretary to join him in lobbying the Treasury for more funding “May I impress on [the Secretary of State] that this remains perhaps the top issue raised with me in my inbox? Will he bear that in mind, particularly when he has his conversations with the Treasury? Will he join me in my campaign to carry on fixing Gedling’s roads?
In response to Tom Randall MP, the Transport Secretary said: “As part of the Network North plan, the Government are providing a record funding increase of £8.3 billion for local highway maintenance in England over the next decade to enable local highways authorities to resurface roads up and down the country. Over that period, Nottinghamshire will get £138.44 million of additional funding over and above what it would have received. In the current financial year, most highways authorities in England will get 30% more funding than they did in the previous year.
“I am grateful to [Tom Randall] for pointing out how effective Nottinghamshire County Council is in spending the £2.3 million that it is getting this year and will get next year; this is revolutionary long-term funding. Interestingly, this is happening because we have a plan, not just for delivering better roads, but for paying for that. Having a plan for delivering and paying for things is important, as the Labour party is finding out today; it has no plan and no way to pay.”
The state of Nottinghamshire’s roads have been compounded by multiple recent flooding events in Nottinghamshire, which have resulted in five times more damage to our roads than has occurred in other years and the Government have today confirmed that they are also looking at what more they can do to address that.
Speaking after Transport Questions, Tom said: “I've been successful in lobbying Treasury Ministers for more funding to repair roads across Gedling and Nottinghamshire, with more than £7m extra secured, but today I asked the Transport Secretary for more because fixing Gedling's roads is one of the top issues raised with me by constituents.
“It is great that the Government are providing a record funding increase of £8.3 billion for local highway maintenance in England over the next decade to enable local highways authorities to resurface roads up and down the country. Over that period, Nottinghamshire will get £138.44 million of additional funding over and above what it would have received and I hope to see large chunks of that spent on resurfacing roads across Gedling.”
