NOTTINGHAMSHIRE County Council has welcomed the news that it is to receive £2.7m from the Government to repair potholes.

The funding is from the £168m dedicated Pothole Repair Fund which the Chancellor announced in the Budget in March and comes on top of an earlier £1.5m, which Nottinghamshire received to repair roads damaged by floods and extreme weather over the past year.

As a condition of receiving a share of the £168m – for which councils had to put in a bid – local authorities have to publish monthly progress updates on how many potholes have been repaired.

It is estimated that the £2,781,482 allocated to the council will help repair around 52,000 potholes.

All repair works funded by the money have to be completed by the end of March 2015.

“This is welcome news, coming as it does against a backdrop of £154m of savings that we as an authority are having to make as a result of Government funding cuts,” said Coun Alan Rhodes, leader of the council.

“An extra £2.7m will enable us to fund the repair of around 52,000 more potholes across the county and comes on top of £1.5m we received earlier in the year from Government to help local authorities repair local roads damaged in by floods and other extreme weather conditions.”