Swindon roads repair backlog £50m, council has revealed

The council said that in "an ideal world, every local authority would have the resources to keep roads free from defects" but that funding for preventative road maintenance has "significantly reduced" over recent decades.

The council said that this means the borough has an estimated £50 million backlog for repairs and maintenance.

This year the council said it received a £1.5 million uplift from the government, increasing the road maintenance budget to £5.75 million.

The council said this will be spent on resurfacing roads, carrying out repairs including potholes, refreshing road markings, upgrading traffic signals, and more.

In August alone, 578 potholes were filled across the borough.

The extra money received this year has allowed for increased patching work, which involves digging up and resurfacing sections of road where multiple potholes have been created.

The council said: "We’re on track to do more work in 2025 than we did in 2024, thanks to the additional funding which is allowing us to allocate more resources to tackle our historic backlog."

People are encouraged to report issues so that repairs can be carried out.