Bolton: Pothole repair funding concentrated on 'worst' roads

The money represents a slice of £6.4million handed out to Greater Manchester by the government, for pothole repairs across the region.

Last week Cllr John Walsh, who represents Astley Bridge and has long campaigned on the issue of road repairs, asked Bolton Council’s leadership what they have done to ensure the borough receives their share of this.

Cllr Walsh said: “You’ll be aware that Greater Manchester was recently awarded £6.4million by the government, Bolton’s share of that is around £650,000 of that.

The meeting took place at Bolton town hall (Image: Newsquest)

“I would like to know what representations have been made by the executive member to GMCA to make sure we get our fair share of that allocation.

“And more importantly can he give an assurance to this council that under the currently council policy of fair funding across the council, each ward will receive its fair share of that additional allocation?”

Earlier this year, The Bolton News reported that the borough council was in the top 10 authorities in England and Wales in terms of the number of potholes reported in 2022.

But last week the announcement was made that Bolton is set to receive a total of £678,214 to repairs its roads.

This is the fourth largest amount received by any of the city region’s boroughs after Manchester, Stockport and Wigan.

Cllr Walsh’s question, put to a full meeting of Bolton Council, aimed to ensure that the funding Bolton has received will be spread equitably across its different areas.

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In response, cabinet member for planning, housing and highways Cllr Hamid Kurram said that his officers were working at identifying the areas most in need of repair.

He said: “The highways team are currently carrying out a review of the latest conditions to assess roads and footways where maintenance is required.

“The use of innovative proprietary repair techniques are also being investigated in order to calculate the best value and maximise the area repaired with the funding available.”

He added: “The intention is that this will replace the lost revenue for the maintenance of roads and footpaths and officers will concentrate funding on the worst roads and footpaths over the whole of the borough.”