Fix roads, fix the economy

I read with interest Steve Cropley’s article

‘Cross country run’ (27 May) covering how

Jaguar Land Rover tests its vehicles. When Steve wrote about tuning British cars for British road conditions and how “UK roads are so uniquely difficult and badly repaired that when a car works in the UK, it will work everywhere”, it reminded me of an experience a couple of years ago while driving with a Dutch colleague.

I’d collected him from Manchester airport in my diesel Skoda Superb, and within a few miles we were travelling along a selection of north-west

England’s A- and B-roads. After around 20 minutes of general conversation, he suddenly, quite loudly and completely out of character said: “My God, these roads are terrible. They wouldn’t let them get into this condition where I live [near Arnhem]. People wouldn’t accept this.” I was surprised at this outburst but, having driven for over 40 years in a good number of countries around the world, including the Netherlands, I rather embarrassedly knew what he meant.

I’m now retired but still recall his comments, particularly because I feel that little has changed. It brings to mind the well-used truism ‘you get one chance to make a first impression’, and unfortunately the state of our roads made a negative impression on him. Remember that one of the first things many visitors to the UK experience is the condition of our roads.

We hear daily of the slump caused by the pandemic, and most people understand the need to prioritise limited financial resources. However, we need to kick-start the economy, so isn’t now the right time to spend on good-quality, planned improvement and maintenance of our roads? Ian Atkinson

Via email