Trafford is due £4.992m of the Mayor's £60m pothole fund. Patching starts this month, resurfacing waits for spring, and five roads are named.

Updated 1 October: on 28 September the council published all 23 routes with forecast start dates, and eight now start between October and December rather than in spring. Ashley Road in Altrincham is among them. Full list: Trafford resurfacing dates.

Trafford is in line for £4.992m to repair its roads, and the council has named five of the roads the money will go on. One of them is Lloyd Street in Altrincham.

The money is Trafford’s share of a £60m Pothole Fund created by the Mayor of Greater Manchester, Bev Craig. Trafford Council says its share will pay for more than 20 new resurfacing schemes, on top of the £7m it has already budgeted for highways this year (Trafford Council, 7 September 2026).

Two dates matter more than the total. Patching starts later this month. Resurfacing does not start until the spring.

The five roads the council has named

The council’s release names five schemes out of the “more than 20” the funding is meant to cover:

  • Lloyd Street, Altrincham, sub-sections
  • Old Hall Road, Sale Moor, a section
  • Lostock Road, Davyhulme and Urmston, sub-sections
  • Broadway, Davyhulme, sub-sections, westbound
  • Talbot Road, Old Trafford, from the A56 to Byron Road

Read the words “sub-sections” carefully. On four of the five, the council is not promising the whole road. It is promising stretches of it, and it has not published which stretches. Only the Talbot Road scheme comes with its extent stated, from the A56 to Byron Road.

The other fifteen or more schemes have not been named at all.

Patching now, resurfacing in spring

The two jobs are different, and the council has been clear about the split.

Patching starts later in September. The council describes it as removing and replacing deteriorated sections of road to restore structural integrity and stop further damage. It says it will spend over £1m on patching and surface treatments on roads that need repair.

Resurfacing waits for spring, once winter is over. The council describes that work as preventative maintenance that seals the road surface, improves skid resistance and stops water getting underneath.

So if a road near you is on the list, the visible resurfacing is roughly six months away. What you may see this autumn is patching, which is a different and smaller job.

Trafford road repair money and timing, 2026 to 2027 Two bar chart comparing Trafford Council's own highways budget of 7 million pounds this year with the 4.992 million pound share of the Mayor's 60 million pound Greater Manchester Pothole Fund, and more than 1 million pounds of that going on patching and surface treatments. Below, a timeline: patching starts later in September 2026, Greater Manchester Combined Authority approval is due later in September 2026, and resurfacing schemes start in spring 2027. Trafford's road repair money, and when the work happens All figures from Trafford Council's announcement of 7 September 2026 Council's own highways budget, 2026/27 £7m+ Share of the Mayor's £60m Pothole Fund £4.992m Of which, patching and surface treatments £1m+ When it happens Later in Sept GMCA has to approve the funding Later in Sept Patching begins on roads that need repair Spring 2027 The 20-plus resurfacing schemes start Source: Trafford Council, "Council leader welcomes £5m pothole funding", 7 September 2026. Graphic by The Alty Post.
The pothole money is about two thirds the size of the council's own highways budget for the year, and most of the visible work waits for spring.

The money is not signed off yet

The council’s own release carries the caveat in its last line: the funding is subject to approval by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority later this month. Until that happens, the £4.992m is an allocation, not a payment.

We could not find the fund published on the Combined Authority’s own news pages on 10 September, so the council’s release is the only first-party account of it we have. The GMCA’s decision, when it is taken, will be minuted on its democratic services pages.

What the council said

Cllr Tom Ross, the leader of Trafford Council, said: “We welcome this extra funding. This year, we have allocated more than £7m, the most money ever, to spend on repairs and maintenance of our highways. The extra money from the GMCA will enable us to go ahead with more than 20 resurfacings schemes, as well as spending over £1m of patching and surface treatments on roads that need repair.”

Cllr Stephen Adshead, the council’s executive member for highways, called it “great news” that would “support us even further in protecting our roads and making them safer for the public”.

Bev Craig, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, said keeping roads and pavements safe and maintained is “essential for a growing city region”, and that the fund would “benefit drivers and everyone who uses our roads to get around”. The council says the £60m across all ten boroughs is enough to repair and maintain over a million square metres of road, around 125 kilometres.

What it means for you

If you drive, cycle or push a buggy on one of the five named roads, the useful thing to know is the timing. Nothing on the resurfacing list is being dug up before spring. The patching that starts this month is not the same work, and the council has not published which roads get patched or when.

If the road you care about is not on the list, it may still be among the unnamed schemes. The council has not published the full list of more than 20, and the funding is not approved until the Combined Authority signs it off later in September, so there is no confirmed programme to check yet.

Two things are worth doing now. If a specific defect is dangerous, report it to the council rather than waiting for a scheme: a reported pothole gets inspected on its own timetable. And if you want to know what is actually dug up on your street this week, our Altrincham roadworks and travel page tracks the live permit register, which is separate from all of this and updates daily.

We will report the Combined Authority decision and the full scheme list when they are published.

Frequently asked questions

How much is Trafford getting for potholes?

£4.992m, its share of a £60m Pothole Fund created by the Mayor of Greater Manchester. The council says it will pay for more than 20 resurfacing schemes, on top of the more than £7m it had already budgeted for highways this year (Trafford Council).

Which Trafford roads are being resurfaced?

The council has named five: Lloyd Street in Altrincham, Old Hall Road in Sale Moor, Lostock Road in Davyhulme and Urmston, Broadway in Davyhulme and Talbot Road in Old Trafford from the A56 to Byron Road. Four of the five are described as sub-sections, not the whole road, and the remaining schemes in the 20-plus have not been named.

When does the work start?

Patching starts later in September 2026. The resurfacing schemes do not start until spring, once winter is over.

Is the money confirmed?

Not yet. Trafford Council’s own release says the funding is subject to approval by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority later in September 2026.

Sources