Opinion: Rosie Wrighting MP - We’ve invested record pothole cash – now council must fix our roads

For too long Northamptonshire’s roads have been left to disintegrate, with a lack of funding and desire from the Conservatives to fix the crisis having a real impact on county motorists.

Broken roads can risk lives and cost families hundreds if not thousands of pounds on repairs. That’s a cost that can easily be avoided – and this Labour Government’s record investment will start to reverse a decade of decline on our country’s roads.

Last month we announced a £1.6bn investment into Highways maintenance in England with every area of the nation getting extra cash to tackle this problem once and for all. More than £12m is going to North Northamptonshire Council – including £3.28m of new funding.

Potholes and the problems they cause come up on the doorstep every time I am out and about knocking on doors in Kettering, Desborough, Rothwell, Burton Latimer and our villages, and are a regular subject matter in my inbox. I’ve had to have a tyre replaced after hitting a road crater locally and I’m not the only one to do so. People are rightly fed up.

But now we have a Government that is firmly on the side of motorists. We have gone beyond our manifesto commitment to back motorists and help raise living standards in every part of the country.

Through our Plan for Change we’re determined to put more money back into the pockets of hard-working people and improve living standards. That’s why we’re giving councils funding to repair our roads and get Britain moving again – with a clear expectation that they get on with the job.

I will be monitoring the condition of local roads closely to hold the council to account and I urge anybody who spots a pothole to report it by visiting www.highways.northnorthants.gov.uk.

If you’re unhappy with the council’s response to your report, please email me at [email protected] and my office will look into it.

This recent investment is the biggest one-off road maintenance funding settlement that local highways authorities have ever been given in England.

North Northamptonshire Council have the money to fix our county’s roads – there can be no excuses now.