Herefordshire is set to receive £674,000 which is expected to repair 12,717 potholes across the county.

The funding has been made available as part of the £250 million Pothole Action Fund, included in last month’s Budget, which will fix over four million potholes all over the UK by 2020/21.

13 councils in West Midlands will receive a share of £5.7 million, helping to remove around 108,000 potholes from local roads during this financial year.

Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin commented:?“I know how important well-maintained roads are to people across the West Midlands. Almost every journey starts and ends on a local road, so the government is giving councils in the West Midlands £5.7 million specifically to tackle the blight of potholes in their area.

“This is just one part of our unprecedented investment in local road maintenance over the next five years. We are giving a record £512 million to local authorities in West Midlands that will improve journeys across the region.”

He continued: “In total, the government is spending a record £6.1 billion nationwide on local highways maintenance between 2015/16 and 2020/21, giving councils long-term certainty for the first time to plan future work with the aim of preventing potholes and improving local roads, bridges and street lighting.

“As part of this investment, the Pothole Action Fund will give local authorities in England £50 million a year, over the next five years, to help them tackle more than four million potholes. Funding is calculated according to the size of the local road network in the area.”

However, the funding has sparked some critisisms. The Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA) claim that the funding, while it may seem like a good idea, may not be as it appears.

Alan Mackenzie, the Chairman of the Asphalt Industry Alliance, said: “The government’s announcement of a £50 million Pothole Action Fund for England in 2016/17 might seem like good news but is, in fact, another clear sign that the battle to rescue our crumbling local roads network is being lost.

“It does nothing to address the cumulative effect of decades of underfunding and perpetuates the downward spiral of the ‘patch and mend’ approach.

The most efficient way to deal with the problem of our failing roads is to fix them properly and stop potholes forming in the first place.

“Poorly maintained roads simply cannot withstand the combination of severe weather and increased traffic, which is why potholes form, and which will, in time, undermine the entire structure of the road.

“Our research has shown that an invest-to-save approach pays dividends with every planned investment providing long-term savings of more than twice the amount spent. Throwing money into potholes is complete madness.”