The councils awarded a share of the £275m local highways challenge fund have been revealed today, with some authorities winning double awards and scooping tens of millions of pounds.
In total 28 town halls across England including Newcastle, South Gloucestershire and Devon were today named among the recipients of funding for 31 projects.
The cash is designed to support major one-off projects under the new Department for Transport's (DfT) new funding regime for local maintenance and is awarded following a local authority bidding process.
The West Midlands Integrated Transport Authority was awarded almost £40m for a project to renew 211 miles of the West Midlands classified road network, towards which the group will also contribute nearly £5m.
Some £19m was awarded to Slough BC to modernise street lighting across the district, Reading and Wokingham. A local contribution of £8.2m will support installation of 38,651 energy efficient LED lanterns and replacement of 11,323 at risk lighting columns.
Lancashire CC received both £5m for infrastructure maintenance on the M65 and £14.8m for street lighting upgrades from government.
South Gloucestershire was allocated £13.9m of DfT funds for cycling and footway improvements to local A roads and structural maintenance, Newcastle City Council received £13.4m for maintenance to critical local highways and Oxfordshire CC was handed £12.9m for local drainage and lighting work.
The funding confirmed today comes under the £6bn announced in December to improve local roads and tackle potholes over the next six years.
Announcing the allocations, transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin said: ‘Good quality local roads are essential for people to get on with their daily business and today’s announcement will provide extra capacity where it is needed most.
‘This government has put record funding in place for local roads as part of our long-term economic plan to improve journeys, create jobs and drive economic growth.’
Challenge Fund awards in full:
Bedford BC - £5.3m (with £1m local contributions)
Blackpool BC - £5.5m (with £5.8 local contributions)
Bradford MDC (lead authority) / Kirklees Council - £5,2m (with £1m local contributions)
Brighton & Hove City Council - £8.9m (with £1.69m local contributions)
Bristol City Council - £12.6m (with £1.4m local contributions)
Cornwall Council – £5.2m (with £1.1m local contributions)
Darlington BC – £5.7m (with £1.9m local contributions)
Devon CC - £10m (with £2.8m local contributions)
East Riding of Yorkshire Council - £6m (with £9.2m local contributions)
Gloucestershire CC - £5m (with £2.5m local contributions)
Lancashire CC - £5.1m (with £1.5m local contributions)
Lancashire CC – £14.8m (with £5m local contributions)
Leicestershire - £5.1m (with £20m local contributions)
Liverpool City Council - £8.5m (with £1.1m local contributions)
Manchester City Council - £6.3m (with £1.6m local contributions)
Newcastle City Council – £13.4m (with £4.9m local contributions)
Norfolk CC - £9.1m (with £1.2m local contributions)
Northumberland CC - £5.6m (with £1m local contributions)
Oldham Council - £3.1m (with £840,000 local contributions)
Oxfordshire CC - £12.9m (with £1.5m local contributions)
Plymouth City Council - £8.3m (with £2.7m local contributions)
Slough BC - £19.3m (with £8.2m local contributions)
South Gloucestershire Council - £13.9m (with £1.5m local contributions)
Southend-on-Sea BC - £5m (with £8.3m local contributions)
Telford & Wrekin Council - £10.3m (with £1.9m local contributions)
West Berkshire Council - £5,6m (with £5.1m local contributions)
West Berkshire Council - £5m (with £2.1m local contributions)
West Midlands Integrated Transport Authority - £39.9m (with £4.9m local contributions)
Wigan Council – £988,000 (with £263,000 local contributions)
Wigan Council - £2.3m (with £631,000 local contributions)
Wirral Council - £6.4m (with £712,000 local contributions)
