Our Cabinet has rubberstamped an extra £4.5 million to be spent repairing local roads, improving key diversion routes and tackling drainage problems across Devon.
Devon County Council’s Cabinet today (Wednesday 14 October) approved the funding as part of its highway maintenance programme for 2026/27.
The funding boost follows an extra £3 million for reactive highway maintenance and an extra £4 million for rapid-response road repairs announced earlier in the year.
The new funding package will fund the resurfacing of three key roads that provide important diversion routes when major roads are closed.
The routes are Whiddon Down to Crockernwell, which provides an east-west alternative; Stockland Hill, linking the A35 and A30; and the B3181 at Budlake, used when traffic is diverted from the M5.
It will also pay for an expansion of the Rapid Response Teams and four additional dedicated drainage teams, providing extra reactive capacity to tackle local drainage problems alongside the council’s existing drainage resources.
The Rapid Response Teams have been working since June on small and medium-sized stretches of damaged road which cause problems for local communities but do not meet the criteria for an immediate safety repair.
The extra funding will allow more of this work to be carried out.
The four additional drainage teams will clear blocked gullies, roadside channels and pipes, with local councillors and highways officers helping to identify where this extra reactive support is most needed.
Together, the work is intended to make local roads more resilient during prolonged bad weather.
Heavy rain and freezing conditions can damage road surfaces and cause flooding or closures, increasing pressure on the diversion routes used to keep Devon moving.
Councillor Dan Thomas, Cabinet Member for Highways, said:
“This is a major extra investment in something that affects almost everyone in Devon. We know how much the condition of roads and drains matters to communities across the county.
“This additional funding will help us strengthen important diversion routes and put more resources into the smaller road and drainage problems people see in their communities every day.
“The Rapid Response Teams give us more flexibility to deal with those jobs, and extending the trial to drainage should help us clear blocked gullies and pipes before they lead to bigger problems.
“We cannot fix every problem overnight, but this £4.5 million means we can do more and make the network better able to cope when bad weather or other incidents hit.”
