Extra £340k to fix potholes

By Elgan Hearn, Local Democracy Reporter 

Powys County Council has been £2million to spend on helping the county recover from Covid-19, and £340,000 of it will be spent on repairing potholes.

Tomorrow, the Covid Recovery Fund will be go to a meeting of PCC’s cabinet for a decision.

The fund has been made possible by £1.8 million given to PCC from the Welsh Government, with an extra £200,000 from the council’s existing Community Grant Fund added to the fund which will be administered over two years.

It has been split with £400,000 a year to go to the community and £600,000 to council services, with a minimum of £340,000 to a Highways Recovery Fund to fix potholes.

Cllr Jackie Charlton said at the latest Economy, Residents and Communities Scrutiny Committee meeting to examine proposals: “This is very welcome. It’s good news that we are able to support people in Powys through a specific fund around the recovery from Covid.”

Cllr Charlton pointed out that with taking the £100,000 earmarked to help groups that run public conveniences in Powys and the £100,000 from the original grant fund, that means that only £200,000 is new money.

Cllr Charlton, said: “We know communities out there are really suffering, why is this such a small proportion of the full fund?

“I have some concerns and would like it explained to me why more than 50% of the £600,000 is being spent on potholes and highways, it doesn’t fit comfortably as far as I’m aware into Covid recovery.

“I’m getting a sense this is not a Covid Recovery Fund it’s an Austerity Recovery Fund which doesn’t feel right.”

Nigel Brinn, asked Corporate Director for Economy and Environment, Nigel Brinn explained: “There’s no right or wrong answer in terms of how we divvy up this cake, there are always many needy areas out there. How we split it is always going to be a bit of a moot point, from the officer perspective we’re quite content with how it was proposed.”

Head of Highways, Transport and Recycling, Matt Perry, added: “In the grand scheme of highways refurbishment, £340,000 is quite small but it’s about improving the network and it will have an indirect impact on the economy and on businesses.”

Council Leader, Cllr Rosemarie Harris, defended the fund and that “small roads need attention”.

Cllr Harris said: “The link with Covid recovery and potholes is that we felt that the part of the economy that had suffered the most was accommodation and rural businesses.

“We rely hugely on the visitor economy; a lot of those businesses are accessed along our minor road network and there are some pretty bad potholes on them.”

The fund was part of budget proposals that were narrowly agreed at a stormy council meeting at the end of February.

Councillors voted in favour of the budget without the details of the fund being available for them to look at.

It allowed the Independent/Conservative ruling coalition to drop this year’s council tax from 3.9% to 2.9%.