A MULTI-MILLON pound road resurfacing fund won’t be enough to fill every pothole across Monmouthshire, councillors have been told, with a roadworks backlog already totalling more than £60m.

A £5.5m fund is being established towards maintaining roads, footpaths, bridges and public rights of way, with a further £1.69m being made available for essential road resurfacing and structural repairs in the county council’s 2026/27 budget, the council’s performance and overview scrutiny committee was told.

Independent councillor for Usk and Llanbadoc, Meirion Howells, described potholes as a “bugbear” for all councillors and asked if the £7.19m total funding enabled the council “to address all the potholes in the next year at speed?”

But Labour cabinet member Cllr Ben Callard, who represents Llanfoist and Govilon, said the additional investment won’t be enough to bring the county’s road network up to standard.

“Will all potholes be fixed over the next year? I wish that was the case, but the backlog on roads maintenance, including things like bridges, the last update I had the total backlog was north of £60m,” he added.

“We are not alone in Monmouthshire, we see similar all across the UK, we’ve just not had the investment in our infrastructure over an extended period of time.”

Committee chairman, Conservative Alistair Neill said residents often complain about temporary repairs to potholes that only last for a very short period, and questioned how the council uses its resources.

Cllr Callard said temporary repairs, known as “cold fills”, are used in emergencies to repair “deep and sharp potholes” that pose a risk, and he said although the council’s teams fill around 80 potholes every day across the county, “it can feel like painting the Forth Bridge”.

He also said the national backlog of road repairs has created “capacity issues” for contractors and design teams, as well as the council’s own workforce and said skills among the workforce also needed to be increased.

“Unfortunately we just don’t have the resources to make all of our roads as they should be and we should expect, being, I think, the fifth largest economy in the world.”

Independent councillor for Wyesham, Emma Bryn, asked if any of the £5.5m would be “ring fenced” for footpaths and rights of way and said: “I feel if it’s not ring fenced, we could find it is all swallowed up by potholes.”

She also asked if any of the sum would be invested in new machinery and training.

Debra Hill-Howells, the council’s director responsible, said half a million pounds has been allocated for footpaths, and a maintenance programme is currently being put together, but no money has been earmarked for purchasing new equipment.

When the £230m budget plans, which include a proposed 5.95 per cent council tax increase, were outlined, Cllr Callard said they don’t include any cuts to council services.

The Labour councillor said it is intended to invest in services following previous years which had seen significant cuts and savings as councils grappled with inflation.