The London Borough of Bexley has been provided with £275,000 from the Department for Transport (DfT) for both 2023/24 and 2024/25 to carry out additional maintenance to the highway road network.

This money, which has been made possible by reallocating HS2 funding, forms the first two years of a planned 11 years of funding for Bexley.  Values for future years are to be determined nearer the time. This DfT provision adds to the funding available and will allow to tackle even more potholes to improve the borough’s road network better.

Councillor Richard Diment, Cabinet Member for Places said:

This is great news for Bexley road users. Following the Autumn and Winter periods, when weather conditions tend to cause pothole issues to appear or small defects worsen, we are now working quickly to identify where there are clusters of potholes that need dealing with.  By tackling these clusters of defects, we will be able to make the most cost-effective use of the DfT funding.”
 

Bexley’s Highways Maintenance team of technicians walk every street at least twice a year to check on safety, as well as investigate concerns raised with them via various channels, including the 2,800 FixMyStreet road defect enquiries received each year.

The team is also utilising an artificial intelligence system which scans the network, to provide additional guidance on how the network is performing. The Council also liaises with the utility companies (BT, Thames Water, etc) to see where they are planning to repair or replace their equipment, so that we can avoid our new road surfacing from being dug up for as long as possible, after installation.

Each year Bexley resurfaces 20 to 30 roads in the borough and treats over 1,600 potholes in need of action in line with our adopted policy.  A summary of the Council’s policy levels for action can be found online.