A £1.3 million surface redressing programme, which will see 81km of Gloucestershire’s roads treated, is set to begin next week, though this does not include pothole compensation hotspot the A419.

Due to begin on Wednesday (July 19), the county council-run scheme will last for 11 days, and will include part of the A417.

Cllr Vernon Smith, GCC cabinet member for highways, said: “Surface dressing seals the road surface with bitumen and chippings.

“It’s a great way of preventing potholes from appearing and we expect this work to save local taxpayers in future road repairs.”

However, the work will not include any of the A419 which the Standard revealed earlier this year had seen the most compensation claims for potholes vehicle damage, between November 2013 and November 2016.

In January, a Freedom of Information request revealed that £17,774 of taxpayer’s money had been paid out to drivers for pothole damage across the county during the period.

The FoI request to Gloucestershire County Council had also found that a total of 1,713 irate drivers had made claims for compensation during the same period.

What’s more, 100 people were, at the time, still demanding compensation in unresolved cases The FOI also showed it was the A419 which had resulted in the most claims in relation to potholes.

However, much of the A419 is managed by Highways England rather than GCC, with the former having undertaken a major 12-week maintenance programme on the A-road from last May.

But this consisted of grass cutting, drainage, channel sweeping and road markings, rather than redressing.

According to the county council, the A419 Ebley Bypass at Stroud will be subject to patching and then redressing work sometime next year by Amey.

In 2016 GCC did also fund resurfacing work on the A419 London Road in Stroud.

GCC’s £407.6 million budget for 2017/18, revealed in February, included £83.8 million for communities and infrastructure, which includes highways.

Speaking at the time, Cllr Mark Hawthorne, leader of the council, said: “We’ve had to make some tough decisions this year. I’m satisfied that this budget does what local people told us they wanted - striking the balance between protecting the most vulnerable, as well as extra money for our roads.”

County roads maintenance contractors Amey are running the redressing scheme, which includes work on Newent to Staunton A417 via Upleadon, as well as Greenway Road and Station Road in Blockley.

In the majority of cases, the council has said the road will be closed while the works take place, which will usually be for one or two days and short diversions will be in place.

Any changes will appear both on online at gloucestershire.gov.uk/roads-parking-and-rights-of-way/roads/road-maintenance/ and on Twitter @GlosRoads.