Leicestershire's Pothole Crisis: £29M Highways Plan

0:00It's April 17th, I'm Cory with the story. This is Lester News today, driven by AI. Lester Sure County Council is switching up road repairs big time after a 271% jump in damage reports. They got nearly 3,000 pothole calls just in February, up from 791 the year before and over 8,700. 63 since last May, the wetdest winter on record wrecked the roads with storms and freeze-doll cycles. To fight back, they're rolling out a nearly 29 million pound highways program for 202627, hiring extra staff for. Faster checks and kicking off a 3 million pound surface dressing job on over 80 miles of road using tougher materials. Counselors say the huge backlog means most urgent fixes are temporary right now, not as pretty as usual, but they keep roads safe until they can do. Permanent work later, folks are frustrated especially after the highways team got the worst possible red rating for maintenance spending.

1:01Costs are spiking too, up 22% from fuel and oil prices tie to the Iran conflict and even with 145 million pounds. In expected funding, officials admit it's not enough to fix everything. Nationally, it would take over 18 billion pounds to patch up England's pothole mess, so if you spot one, hit up the council online or call zero. 116305001, they're prioritizing what they can while the rain keeps pounding.