BARNSLEY Council’s official opposition has criticised the local authority for allegedly failing to address the borough’s pothole-ridden roads – despite an £18m package being approved this week.
Ruling cabinet members signed off on the £18.289m highways capital programme on Wednesday which will, according to bosses, continue the council’s ‘prevention is better than the cure’ approach.
It will be supported by £2m of additional one‑off investment for main roads and side streets, helping address areas where deterioration has accelerated and ensuring communities with higher levels of need benefit from targeted improvements.
Planned upgrades will also improve traffic signals to reduce delays and congestion, enhance road safety, make it easier and safer to walk, wheel and cycle, and support better air quality and healthier travel choices.
However, Barnsley’s Liberal Democrats have slammed the programme for not going far enough for annoyed motorists.
Councillor Hannah Kitching said: “The 2026/27 capital highways programme has been published and as with so many previous years it is deeply disappointing.
“With so many roads now more pothole than road, the knowledge that many of these will not be resurfaced for yet another year is so frustrating.
“The Lib Dems called recently for a doubling of additional investment into the resurfacing programme for this exact reason.
“A modest increase from £2m to £4m would have meant twice as many roads resurfaced in every ward.
“It was rejected, leaving our crumbling roads to be botch-job patched over and over again.”
According to the council, schemes in the programme are selected using robust data, surveys and professional engineering assessments, ensuring the best use of public money.
Regular inspection, monitoring and forward planning has been done in order to target repairs more effectively, reducing costly emergency works later down the line.
A cabinet report confirmed worst roads will be prioritised for repair.
“The programme delivers the work through intelligence-based identification and prioritisation of investment in the highway network. Schemes are identified in a transparent and defendable way, using condition data determined from surveys and manual inspections to deliver works in an impartial way.
“This achieves best value for the asset with the resources available.
“In addition, a degree of engineering judgement is used to enable a more focused and efficient delivery of the programme.
“Whilst the majority of works associated with this funding will be delivered by the in-house highways service provision, external contractors will deliver certain specialist elements.
“As is always the case with any programme made up of a high number of individual projects, and with the uncertainty of decision-making for work to be undertaken so far in the future, there is a significant likelihood that potential schemes listed could be re-programmed and carried forward into future years.”
Coun James Higginbottom, cabinet spokesperson for environment and highways, added: “We are proud to be delivering more than £18m into Barnsley’s highways this coming year, because we know this matters to our residents and visitors.
“This includes an extra £2m for resurfacing local roads and builds on successive years of investment into our borough’s highway network.
“Our preventative approach to long-term maintenance, coupled with extra money for immediate pothole repairs now, will help to deliver long-term improvements to our highways.
“Barnsley Council is delivering significant and sustained investment into repairing our roads, investing in our communities and unlocking economic opportunities.”
