MK Labour has revealed MK Council will invest an extra £150,000 in pothole repairs over the next few months.

After a wet and frosty winter the Labour-led council will invest £50,000 from reserves immediately and £100,000 will be available from the end of March to repair more potholes.

New data from Milton Keynes Council has shown that complaints about potholes are at their lowest ever level in recent times, with defect reports having halved since Labour took control of the council in 2014, from over 2100 in 2014 to just over 1000 last year.

Public satisfaction with our highways has also increased by over third, from 35% in 2014 to just under 50% last year, placing MK in the top ten of satisfaction ratings out of the 154 highway authorities in England. Neighbouring Buckinghamshire scores just 25%.

Milton Keynes also showed the third biggest improvement nationally in highway condition, and was one of only a handful of councils to improve year on year in the previous 12 months.

Increasing the number of pothole repairs and improving roads has been an on-going theme of the Labour-led administration of MK Council, with Council Leader Pete Marland being nicknamed “Pothole Pete,” by local media.

Cllr Emily Darlington, Cabinet Member for Highways, said: “MK Labour is investing more cash to fix more potholes. We will never be able to fix every pothole, but we can fix more, with better repairs that last longer.”

She continued: “Since Labour took over running MK Council the number of pothole complaints has halved and the satisfaction with our highways is at its highest ever, one of the best in the country. But we don’t want to rest at better, we want the best. The winter autumn and winter, as well as recent freezing temperatures mean we have work to do in the spring, and we are putting extra cash into getting more repairs done.”

Cllr “Pothole” Pete Marland, Leader of MK Council, said: “Labour have improved our roads in MK and the evidence shows it, but we always want to go further. That’s why we are investing even more in fixing our roads and will continue to do so.”