Government announces £6.7million for potholes in South Yorkshire - but Sheffield gets none of it

Transport minister Heidi Alexander announced, on Friday, what she said is a record £1.6 billion investment in the state of roads in England. The funding for South Yorkshire totals £6,733,000.

A spokesman for the city council explained that the council's Streets Ahead highways maintenance is being delivered through a private finance initiative (PFI), drawing on investment from the private sector.

He added that, because Sheffield’s public roads are maintained under a PFI deal for maintenance activities, "the council therefore does not qualify for additional funding from central government". This also applied to funding released when the HS2 rail contract was scrapped.

The Streets Ahead contract determines how potholes are repaired.

The council spokesman said that potholes posing the greatest safety risk to road users must be made safe within 24 hours of the report being received. All other potholes are repaired as soon as all safety critical repairs have been completed.

When a pothole is reported, it is triaged to establish the risk to road users and then programmed for repair.

Anyone who wants to report a problem with a road, pavement or cycle lane can go to the council website here https://www.sheffield.gov.uk/roads-pavements/report-road-problems or use the or via the Fix My Street online app.

Site users are advised to supply good location information such as the nearest lamp column number, house number or even a what3words location to help the team find and repair any reported potholes more effectively.