These are the roads in Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre being resurfaced with axed HS2 cash

Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre will see more of their roads resurfaced after being allocated money saved by the scrapping of the northern leg of the HS2 rail link to Manchester. 
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Half a dozen schemes will be delivered - two in each area - after Lancashire County Council received £7.2m and Blackpool Council was handed £382,000 from a pothole-filling cash pot created as part of the government’s “Network North” plans to redistribute unspent HS2 cash.  

The extra resurfacing money has been distributed in equal tranches to each of the two authorities across the 2023/24 and 2024/25 financial years.

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As The Gazette revealed last month, County Hall - which is responsible for roads in Fylde and Wyre - has opted to invest £1.8m of the funding received for the year ahead into its Local Deterioration Fund (LDF), which aims to tackle problem spots highlighted by county councillors, along with those defects that require regular visits to carry out repeated repairs.

Priorities for the fund - which finances only small-scale schemes - are also determined by the number of potholes in close proximity to each other, the cost of compensation claims arising from the faults and the significance of the route where they have appeared.

Unlike the 88 major resurfacing and surface dressing projects being undertaken across the county council patch in the coming year - worth £15.2m - the details of individual LDF schemes are not usually published.  However, the conditions attached to the government’s redirected HS2 cash means the locations for the lower-level works funded by that money have also now been laid out.

The Gazette understands that work on all bar one of the County Hall schemes to be funded by the money received for 2023/24 - which was not allocated until late last year - has yet to start.  Those projects - for which £836,000 was pumped into the LDF - will be completed during 2024/25, together with those financed by the money received for the current year.

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Meanwhile, Blackpool Council has completed its 2023/24 project, with another to come this year - both of which were partially funded by the Network North contribution. 

Of the £7.2m redistributed HS2 funding to have come Lancashire County Council’s way to date, £2.7m has gone into the LDF - almost doubling the amount already allocated to it from ordinary funding for 2024/25.  The remainder of the HS2 money so far received will be spent on drainage works (£2.4m), new streetlight columns (£1.2m), lining projects (£1m) and roundabout resurfacing (£50K).

It completes a complicated patchwork of road maintenance funding for Lancashire County Council, which totals £32.4m for 2024/25.

As The Gazette revealed last month, county councillors on the authority's environment, economic growth and transport scrutiny committee called for more of a say in how that cash is spent, with one saying they were being made to look "stupid" because they could not get the pothole priorities of residents acted upon.    They were advised by County Hall highways officers that the Local Deterioration Fund was their vehicle for doing so - but also heard that the pot was almost ten times oversubscribed.

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A spokesman for Lancashire County Council said: "We know that improving our roads is a top priority for Lancashire's residents and businesses.

"An increasingly important part of our highways maintenance strategy is to tackle areas where the road surface is deteriorating, leading to repeated pothole repairs - and we'll be investing around £1.86m of the Network North funding over the next year in mini-resurfacing schemes to ensure these problems are resolved.

"Another priority for this funding will be drainage improvements to reduce the impact which the prolonged wet weather such as we've had over recent months has on the condition of our roads."

EXTRA ROAD REPAIR SCHEMES 2023-2025   

Blackpool

***Six streets in the vicinity of Stanley School, Wordsworth Ave - completed scheme, which the authority says has led to improved safety for residents and those accessing the school. (Network North: £191K; general pothole fund £142K). ***Ansdell Road - includes drainage work (Network North £191K;  general pothole fund £470K)

Fylde

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***A585 Kirkham Bypass - Fylde East - resurfacing of roundabout junction with Georges Park.

***Willows Avenue - Lytham - resurfacing full length 

Wyre

***Bells Bridge Lane - Wyre Rural East - works from canal bridge to Ford Green House entrance

***Longmoor Lane - Wyre Rural East - works from junction with A6 to five metres beyond Parkside Lane

Sources: Blackpool Council and Lancashire County Council

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