Local roads across Wales are being fixed as work begins as a result of a scheme which is unlocking up to £120m for local councils.
The Cabinet Secretary for Transport and North Wales Ken Skates today visited one of the first roads to benefit, the A548 in Conwy County between Abergele and Llangernyw.
The local government borrowing initiative provides an extra £10m of revenue funding to local councils to enable them to unlock an additional £120m over two years of capital funding to accelerate the process of fixing our local roads and pavements.
The funding boost will see an extra 600km of the local road network resurfaced this financial year. Roads that are most in need of repairs will be renewed, with over 200,000 thousand potholes fixed and prevented, and pavements repaired in local authorities across Wales.
The scheme has been designed in close partnership with the Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA).
All 22 local authorities have been awarded funding to help them unlock the funding to fix roads on their networks across Wales. Work has already started in some local authorities and this will fix thousands of potholes and prevent hundreds of thousands in future years.
In Conwy County the work on the A548 means approximately 14km of resurfacing which will fix and prevent approximately 4000 potholes. Part of the road has already been completed as part of the scheme, making it one of the first to benefit.
Ken Skates said:
“Fixing our roads is a priority for this government. Not only are we providing an extra £25m to fix and prevent potholes on our strategic road network, but we are also supporting local authorities to fix local roads.
“This will deliver a real difference to communities across Wales, fixing problems now and making our roads more resilient for the future. I look forward to seeing more and more local roads fixed over the next months.”
Cllr Goronwy Edwards, Conwy’s Cabinet Member for Infrastructure, Transport and Facilities, said:
“We welcome this funding from Welsh Government to improve the condition of our roads. Our road network is the Council’s largest and most valuable asset and is really important to our residents. Alongside £2M of Council investment, it means we will be spending over £6M this year on road resurfacing - to repair existing potholes and surface treatments to reduce new potholes forming.”