Essex County Council (ECC) has vowed to make the most of a share of more than £68.5 million allocated to the Eastern Region for pothole repairs.

The authority does not yet know how much of the cash will be given to Essex, which fixed 11,615 potholes on county area highways in 2020.

The £68,534,000 for the east is part of a total £500 million to local authorities in England announced yesterday (Monday, 15 January) by the Department for Transport (DfT).

With the average pothole costing around £50 to fill in, the funding will ensure that the equivalent of 10 million potholes can be repaired across the country.

Councillor Kevin Bentley, Deputy Leader of Essex County Council and Cabinet Member for Infrastructure, said: "We welcome this money provided specifically to help councils work to catch up to some extent with the inevitable backlog of pothole repairs after wet and freezing winter weather.

"We will use a combination of our in-house crews and quickly mobilised support from supply chain partner firms to maximise the effectiveness of all the funding available. We fixed 11,615 potholes across Essex in 2020 and have a major challenge now to repair those caused by the coldest winter in 10 years.

"Extra crews are now working to fix more potholes each week logged by Essex County Councillors, in addition to the usual safety-priority repairs we carry out."