A tax rise of almost 5% has been approved by Staffordshire County Council – and the budget for next year includes £15m extra investment to repair more potholes and tackle drainage issues.
Further details of the additional highways investment were revealed as county councillors voted on a £735m budget for the coming financial year on Thursday (February 13).
The £15m will come from a one-off corporate reserve. It will be used to fund measures to help adapt to the effects of climate change on the county’s roads.
Stone Rural Councillor Ian Parry, cabinet member for finance and resources, said at Thursday’s full council meeting:
“We recognise that climate change is having a major impact on our finance and budget in Staffordshire. We have seen over the last few years the number of storms, the heavy persistent rain and the difficulties in managing flooding.
“Last year we increased our spend on recovery from winter damage. We have decided to continue that level of funding and that will increase the amount of work we can do on gully emptying and defect fixing.
“But we want to do more and today we can announce that we will release an extra £15m from our reserves. We believe that contingency is significantly higher than we need to hold and therefore this is an opportunity to reinvest that money we’ve put aside – which is council taxpayers’ money – to reinvest in a climate response fund and to spend an extra £15m on top of the £5m we’ve already allocated in the MTFS (Medium Term Financial Strategy).
“This may mean additional Pothole Pros, teams to tackle flooding, more gully emptying, more dig downs, that will hopefully arrest that issue of climate change and put us in a better position.
“This is not the end of it – this is going to be a struggle we are going to have to face over the next few years. But it’s a start, and I think it is a significant amount that we are investing in our roads and something taxpayers and road users will welcome.”
Last year the authority invested an additional £8m in fixing roads, on top of the money already earmarked for general roads maintenance, improvements and major projects. A report to the council said:
“The options are designed to enable visible improvements that will be felt across the whole of Staffordshire by retaining the same levels of resource working on our highways in 2025/26 as we had in 2024/25.
“Alongside this we propose to do additional inspections of utilities works, something residents feedback as a real issue, increase the number of small-scale integrated transport projects delivered across the county and increase our resource to improve communications. Added together, this investment will increase outputs (e.g. up to 14,000 more potholes repaired, up to 1,400 more drain repairs, and up to 46,000 more gullies cleansed across a year) which in turn has a benefit of improving infrastructure across the county, reducing the number of claims and ultimately reducing the need for future interventions.”
Cabinet Member for Strategic Highways Mark Deaville said:
“The extra money invested last year has really paid dividends, in that we were able to come out of the wettest winter on record and put a concerted effort into fixing more roads. We fixed on average 153 potholes every day last year and, added to this, were able to inspect 18% more gulleys.
“Climate change and the effect it is having on our roads means we must also prepare for more extreme weather events. Therefore, this funding will also be used to address longer term issues, including enforcement on landowners with drainage assets affecting the highways.”
Labour councillor Nigel Yates proposed an amendment to the budget to create a £2m contingency fund from capital reserves to help mitigate the effects of climate change on the county. He said
“It is very gratifying to see at the eleventh hour, unannounced, Councillor Parry has taken on board the substance of what I’m going to say.
“However, the amendment I would like to put forward still has validity and still stands. The effects of climate change are becoming ever more conspicuous; precipitation is increasing, extreme weather events are becoming the norm.
“The reserve would be called on to make structural improvements to flood defences in high risk or perceived high risk areas, for example enhanced drain construction. This would be one-off in nature as it is funded from reserves.”
But the amendment failed to gain enough support from fellow councillors to be carried. Councillors went on to vote in favour of the budget put forward by the Conservative administration, although Labour councillors and independent member Jill Hood abstained.
The approved budget means that Band D households will pay £1,621.33 for county council services in 2025/26 – an extra £1.48 a week compared to last year. Elected members were told that despite the 4.99% rise Staffordshire’s council tax was the third lowest in the country for a county authority however.
Councillor Parry said:
“We are not allowed to borrow to make ends meet, and nor would we wish to, so we must live within our budget. And for every £10 we have, nearly £7 is spent on keeping vulnerable children and adults safe and cared for: everything else we do is funded by what is left.
“However, thanks to years of careful management and planning ahead, we’re in a position to not only maintain essential services, but we’re able to invest in both job creation and quality of life.”
