Gov’t promises £100m to repair Britain’s potholes
But survey says it would take 14 years and cost £9.3bn to x local roads properly
THE GOVERNMENT HAS vowed to make £100 million available to local councils in England and Wales to repair pothole-ridden roads. The money adds to the £75m already pledged by the Government for the Pothole Action Fund and the £46m it has promised to highways authorities.
However, a new survey has revealed that it would take 14 years and cost £9.3 billion to properly repair Britain’s roads, while 24,496 miles of roads will fail if they aren’t repaired in the next year. Long-term underinvestment and ineffective government funding, as well as bad weather earlier this year, were cited as reasons for the deterioration in road surfaces.
HUGE BUDGET SHORTFALL
The annual local authority road maintenance survey is carried out by the Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA). It gathered feedback from more than 60% of local authorities in England and Wales that are responsible for maintaining 98% of our roads. (Highways England and Traffic Wales receive direct funding from the Government to maintain motorways and major trunk routes.)
The study found that councils have a total budget shortfall of £556m to repair roads, equating to a deficit of £3.3m per authority.
The Government has said it is investing £6bn in improving local roads, but the AIA claims that inconsistencies in allocated budgets make it difficult for local authorities to initiate long-term fixes.
“The average totals hide a wide disparity that exists between those seeing increased funding and others who have seen funds diverted to other areas of council expenditure, notably education and social care,” the report said.
LONG-TERM SOLUTION
Although more than 1.3 million potholes were filled in England and Wales in 2017, the AIA argues that this is not the best long-term solution to the problem.
“We should be focusing on improving the overall condition of our local roads,” said the chairman of the AIA, Rick Green. “Potholes are a symptom of poorly maintained roads. They need to be stopped from forming in the first place by providing cash-strapped local authorities with sufficient funds to ensure the roads are fit for purpose.”
Driving over potholes and broken road surfaces can damage car wheels and tyres and cause suspension to wear out prematurely. Last year, councils paid out £7.3m in compensation to motorists whose cars had been damaged by potholes, an increase of more than £500,000 on the previous year.