A COUNTY councillor is calling for the government to change the way road funding is allocated from Westminster, so as to better tackle the state of local potholes.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, the South West Surrey MP, announced an additional £200million for 2023/24 across the country for pothole repair as part of his budget this week.

Surrey’s share will be £3.7m, which will hardly dent the backlog of work required on local roads – 4,651 potholes in Woking borough were reported to Surrey County Council in a two-year period from January 2021 to December 2022, out of a total of 85,377 during that time.

SCC’s deputy cabinet member for levelling up, Cllr Rebecca Paul (Conservative, Tadworth, Walton & Kingswood) said she was “delighted” the Government had recognised more funding was needed in Surrey for road repairs.

“The recent spate of potholes across our county affects every single one of us, so this additional money is much welcomed,” she said.

But she called on the Government to “go further and give serious consideration” to changing how highways maintenance funding is allocated to take into account traffic volume.

Cllr Paul delivered a petition to Downing Street in June 2022 calling for funding for road repairs to be allocated by usage, rather than the current formula which looks at the length of roads.

She said: “This would result in a fairer allocation of funds so that Surrey Highways is better able to address the backlog.”

A Surrey County Council spokesperson said: “While any additional funding for potholes is welcomed, as highlighted by the Annual Local Authority Roads Maintenance survey in 2022, the condition of roads across the UK would require a one-time catch-up cost (over and above what authorities already receive) of £12.64bn.

“The current commitment from government for English roads funding prior to the announcement in this week’s budget was £2.7bn in total between 2022 and 2025, therefore the funding allocations from government still fall far short of the needs of the UK roads.”

Roads minister Richard Holden said calls for “fairer funding” from central government were complicated, pointing out that a lot of the strategic road network, paid for out of national taxation, was in Surrey.

He added: “I’m always willing to listen to local concerns about these issues.

“I think it’s vitally important that we do get the balance right when it comes to road funding.”

* A MOTION will be brought to a meeting of Surrey County Council on Tuesday, calling for the adoption of a “Vision Zero” system, a concept that involves designing a road system which seeks to stop fatal road collisions.

“It needs to be unacceptable in Surrey in 2023 that more than 20 people will likely die on our roads this year,” said Will Forster (Lib Dem, Woking South).

“The number of deaths and road casualties on Surrey's roads remains largely unchanged over the last 10 years, so we need to try a new approach. If the council really wants to promote active travel, it needs to take positive steps to make the road network safer not just for car drivers and passengers, but also for cyclists and pedestrians.

“The effects of a road traffic collision can have a physical, emotional, social and economic impact on everyone involved.

“In financial terms the cost of road collisions in Surrey was approximately £250 million in 2021.”