Local Conservatives have welcomed news from the Department for Transport confirming that Coventry City Council is set to receive an additional £488,183 to help repair Coventry's roads following the damage caused by the harsh winter conditions.
It was announced in the Chancellor's Budget, unveiled on Tuesday, that £200 million will be spent in addition to the £200 Million announced in January to repair pot holes across the country which have become the bane of the lives of motorists and cyclists alike.
Coventry City Council will be required to publish a list of the works carried out using this money online by the end of September.
Welcoming the news, Councillor Kevin Foster, the Deputy Leader of the Conservative Group and the Group's Finance Spokesman, said “At the City Council’s Annual Budget meeting in February Conservative’s proposed that an extra £1.25m should be spent on road maintenance over the coming year. Sadly Labour Councillors voted to block this investment, but I am pleased that the Government is now set to give more cash to the Council so that at least some of the roads which would have benefitted from this investment will now see work this year.“
Adding, Councillor Allan Andrews, the Conservative Spokesman for City Services, which includes responsibility for highways maintenance, said: "Conservatives have welcomed and supported the work being performed by Coventry City Council to help repair our roads after a harsh winter and this additional money from the Government is extremely helpful. I hear from my constituents on a regular basis their concerns about potholes and I know the damage that some potholes have caused to their vehicles. This is a massive problem throughout the country and as such I am delighted that the Government has stepped in to help, despite the perilous state of the economy which it inherited from the last Government.
"I also welcome the fact that the money is being invested in such a transparent way and I have met with Council Officers to seek assurances that this money will be used to fix roads on a worst first basis, which is a long-standing policy of the City Council."