HAMPSHIRE has been given £1.5million of fresh ammunition in the war against potholes.

A new government grant will help fill nearly 30,000 in the next 12 months. Southampton will get £80,000, enough for 1,500 potholes, while Hampshire County Council's £1.49m grant will fix 28,000. Cllr Jacqui Rayment, Southampton City Council's cabinet member for transport, said she was not told of the investment but welcomed the news.

She said: “I guess that any money from government to help maintain the roads would be a really welcome initiative.”

Both councils use complex formulae to decide which potholes are fixed first. Issues are spotted by regular road inspections, as well as reports from councillors and the public.

Announcing the funding, Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin said yesterday: “Almost every journey starts and ends on a local road, so the government is giving councils in the South East £8.3million specifically to tackle the blight of potholes in their area.

“This is just one part of our unprecedented investment in local road maintenance over the next five years. We are giving a record £778million to local authorities in South East that will improve journeys across the region.”

The Pothole Action Funds (PAFs), calculated according to the size of local road networks, are separate to the £250m investment in county roads from Highways England.

Hampshire County Council's grant is the biggest awarded to any council in the region.

The council and Conservative transport chiefs were unable to provide comment before going to press.

Cllr David Simpson, the Liberal Democrats transport spokesman, said: “It's great that we're going to finally get some of our roads fixed. What a shame that the Government had to step in to help the county do the job is should be doing in the first place.”