To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much money from the public purse has been provided to (a) Medway, (b) Kent and (c) the South East for the repair of potholes and the prevention of potholes.

The Government is providing Medway Local Highway Authority £10.577 million from 2015/16 to 2018/19 for local highways maintenance. This funding includes £0.619 million from the Pothole Action Fund to allow the repair of potholes or stop them forming in the first place.

The Government is providing Kent Local Highway Authority £113.334 million from 2015/16 to 2018/19 for local highways maintenance. This funding includes £6.764 million from the Pothole Action Fund to allow the repair of potholes or stop them forming in the first place.

The Government is providing the South East’s highway authorities £619.145 million from 2015/16 to 2018/19 for local highways maintenance. This funding includes £36.503 million from the Pothole Action Fund to allow the repair of potholes or stop them forming in the first place.

In addition, the Department for Transport announced in January 2017 that it is undertaking an innovative trial on the way potholes are identified and managed, working in partnership with Thurrock, York and Wiltshire councils and two private sector SMEs, Soenecs and Gaist. This trial allows high-definition cameras to be mounted to refuse collection vehicles and by deploying innovative intelligent software will identify road surface problems before they become potholes. The trial recently won an award for the best use of new technology in the highways sector.

The Government also announced, in March 2018, that it is investing more than £900,000 in innovations using connected vehicles to help councils manage and plan maintenance works more efficiently. These trials will ultimately help to provide councils with data to enable them to repair potholes before they occur as well as to maintain their other assets more effectively as part of their asset management plans.

Finally, the Department for Transport is providing funding to the Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning and Transport (ADEPT) to work on technological and innovative improvements to future-proof the local road network.