Councils need £10bn to get roads back into reasonable condition - report

Published by Ross Macmillan for 24dash.com in Local Government and also in Communities

Local authorities need more than £10 billion to get their roads back into reasonable condition, according to a report today.

The shortfall in the highway maintenance budget received from central Government by England and Wales councils in 2011 amounted to £895 million, 12% up on last year, the report from the Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA) said.

The total number of potholes filled in 2010/11 reached more than 2.2 million - a 59% increase on 2009/10, the AIA added.

According to highways engineers, one in five local roads in England were considered to be in poor condition, with the figure for London being as high as 25%.

In addition, 17% of Welsh local roads were thought to be in a poor condition.

Asked to estimate the level of one-off investment needed to get their roads back into reasonable condition, local authorities in England and Wales estimated that £10.65 billion would be required.

This is an increase of £1.15 billion on the amount estimated last year.

The estimated time for clearing the backlog for English councils (excluding London) was 11 years, while for London it was nine years and for Welsh councils it was 14 years.

Under-funding of highway maintenance programmes is believed by 90% of local authorities to create a threat to road-user safety.

The report said most authorities in England and Wales were unable to make good the damage caused at the beginning of 2010 before the snow fell again at the end of the year.

The situation was better in London where two thirds of authorities did manage to complete repairs on their roads before freezing conditions set in again.

The total cost of the bad-weather damage to roads in early 2010 was estimated at £362 million.

On average, each local authority in England, excluding London, filled in an average of just under 16,000 potholes in 2010/11 at a cost of £53.81 per hole.

For all England and Wales councils, there were more than 16,000 reports or complaints about potholes from the public in 2010/11.

Over recent weeks, the Government has announced an extra £200 million for councils to deal with potholes. This followed a £100 million that was made available by the Labour Government last year.

AIA chairman Colin Loveday said: "Local authorities are doing what they can, but reactive maintenance - such as simply filling potholes when they appear - is at least 20 times more expensive than planned preventative maintenance.

"The annual shortfall in budget has increased this year and spending review cuts translate to a potential loss of another £440 million over the next four years. The recently-announced additional £200 million is welcome but if the Government wants to save the country money it should be investing in local roads now to save a massive repair bill later on."

AA president Edmund King said: "Deteriorating road condition is a serious problem that the motorist clearly wants to be resolved.

"The AIA figures show that £100 million here and there, although welcome, simply isn't going to fix a problem of this scale. We have to keep up the battle against this blight which damages cars and risks road safety, especially for those on two wheels."