NEARLY £4million extra funding is being made available to repair pot holes in Gloucestershire and South Gloucestershire.

Gloucestershire County Council is to received an additional £3,384,269 in government funding just announced.

The money is on top of £3,308,360 made available in March and means the authority will have a total 2014-15 budget for road maintenance of nearly £14million.

In South Gloucestershire, more than £600,000 extra funding is being awarded to the district.

The funding is in addition to the £479,000 announced in March to help repair damage caused by the winter weather.

It means that, in total South Gloucestershire will receive over £1million this year to tackle roadworks, on top of its existing 2014-15 road maintenance funding of just over £4.12million.

Cllr Pat Hockey (Lib Dem, Frampton Cotterell) said: “This will be welcome news for all South Gloucestershire residents and road users. It’s good to see South Gloucestershire getting a fair share of central government funding.

“We saw some of the worst weather on record this winter and I am pleased that the government has recognised the strain this has taken on our local roads.”

The government has announced it is sharing £168million between 148 councils to help fix three million potholes by March 2015. The Department of Transport has said it costs on average £53 to fix every pothole.

Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin said: "Potholes are the bane of all our lives and the funding announced is an important step in ridding our roads of this menace.

"But it is only one part of a massive programme of investment to get our country up to speed as part of this government's long-term economic plan."