WORCESTERSHIRE County Council has been awarded more than £3 million in funding to help fix pothole problems on the county's roads.

The council was handed one of the largest shares of the Government’s £168 million allocation for the West Midlands.

The funding has been awarded to each council based on its length of roads maintained but additional cash has been allocated to councils that have demonstrated the best practice in highways maintenance.

That includes investing in new technologies and materials, bringing in specialist machinery and dedicated workers to tackle potholes and working to prevent them appearing in the first place.

County councillor John Smith, cabinet member for transport and highways, said: “We are thrilled to receive such a substantial fund from the Government. Worcestershire has been proactive in its approach to such a growing problem.

“We have also been active in urging our residents to report pot holes, which has allowed them to get involved in the process and see how their money is being spent on repairing their local roads.”

After the winter floods earlier this year, the council put an extra £700,000 towards the repair of more than 7,000 potholes in the county.

In addition, the council has released £3.5 million for a targeted surface dressing campaign that will run over the next couple of months.

Mr Smith said: “The floods earlier this year played havoc with highways throughout the county and it's a real testament to both the highways and planning team that the problem has been addressed and realistic funding matched with the problem.”

One requirement of the funding is that the council will be subject to quarterly updates so residents can see how many potholes or miles of resurfacing have been undertaken in a specific area.

The £3.3 million funding is in addition to the £10.9 million roads maintenance fund that has been allocated by central government for 2014/15.