North Shropshire roads will be resurfaced as part of a scheme of roadworks implemented after the scrapping of HS2's northern leg.

Shropshire Council is among 102 local authorities to have published detailed road resurfacing plans after the UK Government applied £150million of money intended for the scrapped HS2 northern rail project to local authorities up and down the country.

Around £2.6m was made available to the Shropshire unitary area under the Government’s Network North scheme in October 2023, which Shropshire Council says has been used to deliver targeted patching of roads, with a follow-on programme of surface dressing set to begin in June this year.

Transport Secretary Mark Harper says councils will now be required to deliver quarterly reports to Government detailing which projects have been delivered over the past three months.

“Alongside this unprecedented funding, which is already being used to improve local roads, we’re making sure local people can hold their local authority to account and see for themselves how the investment will be spent to improve local roads for years to come,” he said.

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The Government says that, as a condition of the funding, local authorities are also required to publish a 2-year plan detailing exactly which local roads will benefit, a move the Government says is designed to make sure money is being spent on pothole repairs.

The authority lists over 50 surface dressing projects on its works programme for 2024/25, including a section of the Whitchurch bypass between Chester Road and Hinton Bank Roundabout and the A528 Ellesmere Road in Shrewsbury.

A further 75 separate schemes are on its resurfacing works programme for 2024/25, including High Street works in Bishop's Castle and Whitchurch, along with carriageway renewal works on Oswald Road in Oswestry and Longden Road in Shrewsbury.

“The department has already been clear with those local authorities that have failed to publish reports that they could see the withdrawal of future funding to resurface roads,” said a Department of Transport spokesperson.

“The £8.3 billion roads resurfacing funding demonstrates our commitment to improve local transport across the country and is the largest ever funding boost for local road improvements, made possible by reallocated HS2 funding.

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“All of the £9.6 billion saved from the Midlands leg will be reinvested in transport across the Midlands, with the £6.5 billion saved through the new approach at Euston being spread across every other region in the country.”

Telford and Wrekin Council was also singled out for its use of “innovative pothole patching” in the statement by the Transport Secretary.

Earlier this year, HS2 minister Huw Merriman told the House of Commons that money redirected from the scrapped high-speed rail project would fund the delivery of a number of schemes in the county over a ten-year period.

“The Shropshire Local Authority will receive an additional overall uplift of £154 million between 2023-24 and 2033-34, with £2.6 million for both 2023-24 and 2024-25,” he said in January.

“It is important to note that it is at the discretion of Local Authorities to determine the allocation of funds from each of these schemes to specific projects and which schemes they choose to deliver within their areas.”