MP Ian Liddell-Grainger has welcomed a Government announcement of an £8 billion windfall to cure the country’s chronic pothole blight.

Mr Liddell-Grainger said Ministers seemed at last to have recognised the threat to road safety represented by neglected road surfaces.

The money represents a quarter of the £36 billion the Government will save by axing the northern leg of the high-speed rail project beyond Birmingham, which was announced this week with the Prime Minister’s assurance that ‘every penny’ would instead be spent on other local transport projects.

Mr Liddell-Grainger said the Westcountry would share a £2.8 billion allocation which should enable an early start to be made on tackling the ‘chronic’ pothole problems he had already flagged up.

He said: “Leaving potholes to get larger and larger is a dangerous policy.

“Any road engineer will tell you that the longer a defective road surface is left to deteriorate the greater will be the eventual cost of putting it right.

“Potholes can cause accidents and they can damage cars and other vehicles.

“Yet there are locations in the South West where they have remained untouched for years.

“Together with many other rural MPs I have been raising the issue of unrepaired potholes with Government for a very long time and I am delighted the money has finally been fund to rectify the problem.”

Mr Liddell-Grainger currently represents West Somerset, but will be the Conservative candidate at the next General Election in the new Tiverton and Minehead constituency which includes large areas bordering Wellington.