£1.5m Black Country and Staffordshire pothole pot 'drop in the ocean'

Local authorities in the Black Country and Staffordshire have been handed a wedge of the £50 million to repair roads across the country in the next 12 months.

But the councillors feel the cash won't go very far.

Staffordshire is to receive £1,069,000 to fix 20,170 potholes, Dudley will get £172,000 to repair 3,245 and Sandwell will receive £160,000 to sort out 3,019.

Walsall gets £140,000 to fill 2,642 potholes, while Wolverhampton receives the least cash from the five authorities, getting £110,000 to fix 2,072 potholes.

Wolverhampton councillor Phil Bateman said: "It's nowhere near enough. I think most Wulfrunians as they travel around will notice by their own eyes and their own experiences that the highways in Wolverhampton and the surrounding boroughs need of a good overhaul.

The £110,000 will be welcome, but you could probably treble that and you still might not have enough to repair them all in Wednesfield North alone."

His sentiments were echoed by Walsall councillor Mike Bird, who said: "It's a drop in the ocean. It'll disappear down a pothole.

"It's absolutely nowhere near enough to fix the potholes in our roads, we need something more like £5 million.

"It's a token gesture from the government that doesn't go anywhere near what we need.

"I think I can speak with confidence for the Black Country that it is nowhere near going to solve the problem.

"It's the government trying to pay lip service while not tackling the real problem of the massive cuts to local authorities.

"The trouble is, when you get these sums of money, the general public often think that some actual research has been done and the amount that's been given will fix the problem."

Stafford councillor Len Bloomer added: "There's no way at all that it will solve the problem. I had a phone call not long ago from someone about fixing a pothole. I made a request for it to be done and it was repaired, but there were another five or six around it that weren't sorted.

"The council has made requests to central government about potholes but we're not getting enough money top sort them out. The roads are awful, and I don't think they are any better anywhere in the Black Country really."

Sandwell councillor Steve Eling feels the money is a gesture geared to garnering votes ahead of the elections in May. He said: "I can't say the money will be unhelpful, it will be used to fix potholes. But a lot more is needed really.

"It's convenient that this announcement has happened just before the elections. There are a lot of roads that are in good condition and are well maintained. But there are some areas where the potholes are terrible. There's a stretch between Junction 6 and Junction 1 on the M5 where you're just dodging potholes, and that's a 70mph road."

Overall, 13 councils in the West Midlands will receive £5.7 million to tackle the blight of potholes.

Is your road littered with potholes? Do you think it's the worst in the Midlands? Let us know at newsdesk@expressandstar.co.uk