In his regular column for the Hereford Times, North Herefordshire MP Bill Wiggin welcomes government spending on the county's potholed roads

GOOD news for Herefordshire as the Government is investing to improve the standard of our local roads as part of the £2.5 billion Potholes Fund between 2021 and 2024/25.

As we look to re-open our country after lockdown I very much welcome a further £6.3 million in government funding to fix potholes that will help Herefordshire Council repair local roads in North Herefordshire.

The roads remain a great source of frustration for drivers either due to congestions and the cancelling of the Hereford bypass or the need for maintenance and pothole repairs.

We know potholes and poorly maintained roads are a huge challenge, particularly after the freezing weather and flooding, so this is great news for everybody who relies on the roads.

I work to ensure that we in North Herefordshire continue to get our fair share of government funding as we have the most miles of roads per capita of population in England.

Despite relentless criticism in our media, the Government’s excellent vaccination program continues to deliver.

At the time of writing we reached a significant milestone in the United Kingdom’s national vaccination programme, achieving an extraordinary feat – administering a total of 15 million jabs into the arms of some of the most vulnerable across the UK.

We are now averaging 2.5 million doses a week and have reached nine in 10 of those aged 75 and over in England with their first dose.

Latest data also shows we have vaccinated more people than the rest of the EU-27 combined.

This world-leading vaccination programme is continuing at an unprecedented speed and we will now start to vaccinate people aged 65 to 69 and those who are clinically vulnerable.

Herefordshire have made marvellous progress and have the second highest vaccination rate – 93.7 per cent – of over 80s in the UK.

This is due to the excellent GPs, the NHS staff as well as volunteers and of course the willingness of patients to attend to ensure no vaccine is ever wasted.

It is by getting the most vulnerable vaccinated quickly that we can move forward with repairing the damage caused by these national lockdowns, especially to our hospitality sector.

As we begin to unlock, there will need to be a balance struck between medical experts who will err on the side of caution and the Government who want to open the country and get the economy running again.