An extra £9m to tackle Norfolk potholes has been handed to council leaders for the next two years - with a total of £141m to be spent over the next decade.
Norfolk County Council has been given £4.5m to resurface roads in each of the years 2023/24 and 2024/25, as prime minister Rishi Sunak pledged to tackle what he branded "the scourge of potholes".
The government has said Conservative-controlled County Hall will get the money from funds redirected after scrapping the northern leg of the HS2 high-speed rail line.
The Department for Transport (DfT) said Norfolk will get £141.2m over the 11 years to 2034. Suffolk will get £107.6m.
Earlier this year, it emerged the bill to clear the 'maintenance backlog' to bring the county's roads up to standard had soared to £69m.
Council bosses warned that, without extra government cash, it would become even harder for them to keep the county's roads in a decent state.
County Hall is responsible for local roads, but not the A47 or A11, which are managed by National Highways.
Graham Plant, Norfolk County Council cabinet member for highways, infrastructure and transport, said: "I welcome this announcement, and acknowledgement from the DfT that maintaining our roads can bring real benefits for everyone who uses our local highway network.
"With almost 6,000 miles of roads maintained in Norfolk, this funding can make a real difference.
"We’ll be closely examining the conditions of the funding and the government’s requirements for how it is spent over the coming weeks, to ensure we can deliver the best results for Norfolk from this funding."
READ MORE: Norfolk pothole in Reepham took 482 days to repair
In announcing the extra cash, Mr Sunak said: “For too long politicians have shied away from taking the right long-term decisions to make life easier for hardworking families – tackling the scourge of potholes being a prime example."
The government said it is up to local authorities how to spend maintenance funding, but part of the reason for the increase in funding is so they can "improve the quality of road surfaces in the future", rather than just focus on fixing existing potholes.
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