{"id":66305,"date":"2025-06-23T17:20:19","date_gmt":"2025-06-23T16:20:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/?p=66305"},"modified":"2026-01-26T17:33:40","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T17:33:40","slug":"minister-sees-innovation-being-used-drive-improvement-devons-roads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/minister-sees-innovation-being-used-drive-improvement-devons-roads\/","title":{"rendered":"Minister sees innovation being used to drive improvement on Devon&#8217;s roads"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>The Minister for the Future of Roads, Lilian Greenwood MP, has been in Devon to see the innovations we&#8217;re using to repair our roads.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>More than 9,500 potholes have been filled across the county so far this financial year and, where possible, our highways teams have also been intervening earlier with repairs on some roads before \u201csafety defects\u201d can form. This work has included over 5,750m2 of extensive patching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A further 10,000m2 of repairs have been carried out using Elastomac, a state-of-the-art road repair material which we have recently adopted, following a successful two-year trial. Elastomac is durable and can be effective in challenging weather conditions to provide a watertight, crack-resistant, and long-lasting repair. It\u2019s also more environmentally friendly as it\u2019s made from 80% recycled material and reduces waste as it doesn\u2019t require defective road surface to be cut out and disposed of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our \u201cDragon Patchers\u201d &#8211; which emit a flame to help bond repair material to the road &#8211; have also been deployed across the county and have undertaken extra shifts over the past couple of months to repair around 17,500m2 of roads. There are four dragon patchers in Devon and the Minister saw one of them in action in Exmouth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Minister for the Future of Roads Lilian Greenwood MP sees innovations adopted by Devon Highways\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/5-D3BbeWTvM?feature=oembed&#038;rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Councillor Dan Thomas, Cabinet Member for Highways, along with some of our highways team had a chance to discuss with the Minister the proactive measures being taken across the county to improve the condition of local roads.<\/p>\n\n\n<div id=\"block_acf-block-685987725e31f\" class=\"councillor-quote align-right dcc grid-x\">\r\n\t<blockquote class=\"councillor-quote-blockquote medium-auto small-12 cell\">\r\n                    <div class=\"councillor-quote-title\"><p>Councillor Dan Thomas, Cabinet Member for Highways, said: <\/p><\/div>\r\n        \t\t<div class=\"councillor-quote-text\"><p>&#8220;This was a good opportunity for the Minister to see the innovations being used to try to help bring Devon\u2019s roads up to scratch. We&#8217;re aiming for more preventative maintenance to be carried out at an earlier stage to improve road surfaces and stop potholes from forming. Our teams are making progress but Devon has 8,000 miles of roads and a highway maintenance backlog which stands at around \u00a3390 million, so unfortunately it\u2019s not going to be an overnight fix.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\r\n\t<\/blockquote>\r\n        <div class=\"councillor-quote-aside medium-auto small-12 cell\">\r\n\t<figure class=\"councillor-quote-image grid-x\">\r\n\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"small-6 cell medium-12\" src=\"https:\/\/democracy.devon.gov.uk\/UserData\/8\/3\/7\/Info00005738\/bigpic.jpg\" alt=\"Councillor Dan Thomas\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>\r\n        <figcaption class=\"councillor-quote-description small-6 cell medium-12\" >\r\n                        <a href=\"https:\/\/democracy.devon.gov.uk\/mgUserInfo.aspx?UID=5738\" rel=\"noopener\">Councillor Dan Thomas, Cabinet Member for Highways<\/a><\/figcaption>\r\n            <\/figure>\r\n    <\/div>\r\n    \r\n    <\/div>\n\n\n<p><strong>The Future of Roads Minister, Lilian Greenwood, said:<\/strong> &#8220;The pothole plague has been blighting roads in Devon and across the country for far too long, which is why we are investing \u00a31.6 billion to resurface roads and fix up to 7 million more potholes across England this year, to help deliver our Plan for Change.This includes over \u00a383 million for Devon, where the County Council&#8217;s &#8216;Dragon Patchers&#8217; are one of the many great examples of using new technology to repair roads faster.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/146\/2025\/06\/Copy-of-hero-image-for-news-website-53-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-66307\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/146\/2025\/06\/Copy-of-hero-image-for-news-website-53-800x450.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/146\/2025\/06\/Copy-of-hero-image-for-news-website-53-600x338.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/146\/2025\/06\/Copy-of-hero-image-for-news-website-53-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/146\/2025\/06\/Copy-of-hero-image-for-news-website-53-640x360.jpg 640w, https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/146\/2025\/06\/Copy-of-hero-image-for-news-website-53-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/146\/2025\/06\/Copy-of-hero-image-for-news-website-53.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The UK Government announced a record \u00a31.6 billion investment in road maintenance for highway authorities in December. Devon received the largest share of this funding and will be able to invest its full award of \u00a383.6 million if it delivers preventative maintenance on its road network, which is the biggest of any authority in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We also added an extra \u00a34 million to the highways budget for 2025\/26 to maintain and improve roads for the people of Devon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Road users can report potholes and other issues on Devon\u2019s roads via our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/roads-and-transport\/report-a-problem\/\">Report a Problem webpages<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":66308,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[24,986],"tags":[918,36],"class_list":["post-66305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dcc-homepage","category-roads-and-transport","tag-cllr-dan-thomas","tag-roads","post_format-post-format-video"],"acf":[],"featured_image":{"ID":66308,"title":"Copy of hero image for news website (52)","alt":"Future of Roads Minister Lilian Greenwood MP seeing road repairs in Devon","description":"","caption":"Future of Roads Minister Lilian Greenwood MP seeing road repairs in 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