Fixing England’s potholes will take 14 years, councils say

Average English council faces a £69M cost to bring our roads to 'reasonable condition'

Fixing England’s potholes will take 14 years, councils say
The pothole repairs backlog has grown from 10.9 years a decade ago. Image: Bigstock.

The government is being warned about the growing backlog of potholes and the billions of pounds that is needed to combat the crisis.

The amount of time it would take for councils to fix England’s roads has risen by almost a third in the past decade, according to a report by the Local Government Association (LGA).

Town hall bosses say action is urgently needed to tackle the backlog which is being made worse by huge funding cuts.

Martin Tett, the LGA’s transport spokesman, said: “Our roads are deteriorating fast and it would take almost £12billion, and it could be nearly 2030, before we could bring them up to scratch and clear the current roads repair backlog.

“Our roads crisis is only going to get worse unless we address it as a national priority.

‘Roads crisis’

“Councils desperately need long-term and consistent funding to invest in the resurfacing projects which our road network desperately needs over the next decade.

“Motorists pay billions to the Treasury each year in fuel duty when they fill up their car at the pumps only to then have to drive on roads that are decaying after decades of underfunding.

“They deserve roads fit for the 21st century.”

The LGA is calling on the government to provide £1billion and suggests that the cash could be funded by investing 2p per litre of fuel duty.

Have you seen a rise in pothole-related vehicle damage in recent years? Share your comments below.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>


The reCAPTCHA verification period has expired. Please reload the page.

Have your say!

0 0

Lost Password

Please enter your username or email address. You will receive a link to create a new password via email.