DORSET will receive more than £14m to fix the county’s roads, according to an announcement by transport secretary Chris Grayling.

In the south west of England, councils are being given more than £30 million for road maintenance and pothole repairs.

Dorset has been allocated £11.1m for maintenance, £2.3m as part of an incentive scheme and £757,000 for the 'pothole action fund'.

Councils nationwide are being given a share of more than £200 million – enough to resurface a road between London and Budapest.

Mr Grayling announced the allocation of an extra £50 million for councils for potholes and flood resilience as well as £151 million to reward examples of councils’ best practice – funding that could resurface more than 1,000 miles of road.

In total for maintenance and repairs during 2019/20, the south west will be provided with more than £132million.

These funds come from the £6.6 billion the government is providing in the six years to 2021 to improve local roads.

As part of the government’s work to prevent potholes in the future, the Department for Transport has said it will fund early stage research into new surface materials or pothole repair techniques, such as 3D printing.

A digital hub will also be set up for experts to share and develop innovations.

Mr Grayling said: “Every motorist knows that potholes have been a problem in the last few years. That is why the government is continuing to step up its funding to local authorities to address this.

“It is now up to highways authorities to innovate and use new technologies to solve the problem.”

The government has also announced it will be providing £23 million for trials of new technologies to develop pothole-free roads, such as using kinetic energy to heat surfaces, recycling plastic waste into a harder-wearing surface or installing sensors to predict where issues might occur.