OLDHAM Council has been awarded an extra £813,000 to improve the borough’s roads.
This extra money is on top of the £6.2m Highways Improvement Project the local authority is already investing this year to improve surfaces for all road users.
The council has been allocated an additional £411,000 from the government’s Local Highways Maintenance Incentive Fund after demonstrating the delivery of cost effective improvements across the network.
The money will now be used to resurface a number of streets and roads that are showing their age.
In addition there is £402,000 to repair potholes, and in some instances prevent them. The work will use a much tougher surface course with a longer life expectancy.
Councillor Arooj Shah, Cabinet Member for Neighbourhood Services, said: “It’s our duty to provide good quality roads for residents and motorists to help improve access and driving conditions.
“Despite the ongoing cuts to our funding and financial challenges we recognise it’s vital to invest, and attract funding, so we can invest in our key infrastructure wherever possible.
“We are already on site working on some of these schemes so people should start to see the benefits and improvements from this pretty quickly.
“As always with infrastructure works, this may mean some temporary inconvenience in terms of traffic disruption, but we will be monitoring this closely to ensure we keep this to an absolute minimum.
“We’re investing money and improving our roads but we also need your help. If you see a pothole report it to us.
“Together – with this additional investment and your patience and help – we can deliver better roads.”
The Local Highways Maintenance Incentive Fund is funding to reward councils who demonstrate they are delivering value for money in carrying out cost effective improvements.
Local authorities complete a self-assessment questionnaire in order to establish the share of Incentive Fund they are eligible for each year.
The Pothole Action Fund 2018/19 announced £2.882m of funding for use by Greater Manchester authorities, of which Oldham is to receive £269,000 as well as an additional £133,000 from Department for Transport.
Oldham Council really should have spent some of this money making good the unadopted roads that Greenfield school traffic uses – especially as the new build will result in unmanageable amounts of traffic on these supposedly pedestrian routes.