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Essex Potholes 3Pothole repair bill could reach £14bn by 2019
New analysis indicates the repair bill for potholes could reach £14bn within two years, reports New Civil Engineer. To reverse the trend, the Local Government Association (LGA) is calling for the Government to inject a further £1bn a year into roads maintenance.
The LGA cites the Asphalt Industry Alliance’s (AIA), annual ALARM survey, which says the overall repair figure has grown from £9.8bn in 2012 to £11.8bn last year. It is projected to rise to £14bn by 2019.
The LGA, which represents more than 370 councils in England and Wales, says such a figure would be more than three times councils' annual spending on highways and transport, which is currently £4.4bn.
Councillor Martin Tett, LGA Transport spokesman, said:
"This year could be a tipping point year regarding potholes, and councils, who have experienced significant budget reductions, now face the looming prospect of a bill of £14bn to bring the nation's roads up to scratch.
"It is wrong and unfair that the Government allocates almost 40 times more to maintaining national roads, which it controls, compared with local roads, which are overseen by councils. It is paramount this funding discrepancy is swiftly plugged.”
Tett says local authorities are trapped in a cycle where they are only ever able to patch up deteriorating roads.
"Councils share the frustration of motorists having to pay to drive on roads that are often inadequate. Our polling has shown that 83 per cent of the population would support a small amount of the existing billions they pay the Treasury each year in fuel duty being reinvested to help councils bring our roads up to scratch.”
AIA chairman Alan Mackenzie agreed that more funding would be needed to tackle the maintenance backlog.
“The fact remains that our local road network receives only a fraction of the funding allocated to the Strategic Road Network (SRN) and this disparity needs to be tackled proactively if further decline is to be prevented,” he said.
In April, Cycling UK described a new £250m five-year Pothole Action Fund as being “the equivalent of using a sticking plaster to fix a broken leg” given the backlog of work to be carried out. Transport Secretary Chris Grayling has since announced that there will be £70m to repair potholes for the financial year 2017/18.
Rochdale Online reports that Rochdale Borough Council has introduced a tougher policy on dealing with pothole compensation claims in a bid to reduce the amount of money being paid out. A freedom of information request revealed that £55,315.77 has been paid out since 2012.
In March, Perth and Kinross Council in Scotland proposed redefining the term “pothole” to include only holes deeper than 60mm, rather than the previous 40mm. The council estimated that this would save approximately £120,000 in annual repairs
Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.
Latest Comments
- Hirsute 2 hours 41 min ago
Radar tells me their closing speed, if they are slowing and how far away. Then I decide to say a prayer. The change of light pattern is incidental.
- lonpfrb 3 hours 1 min ago
Quite so, which is why our village 20mph zone covers the whole residential extent. Of course, enforcement is another thing..
- lonpfrb 3 hours 27 min ago
No, that's very doubtful while proper testing would be fully destructive.
- TheBillder 4 hours 13 min ago
In that £1000 exactly scenario, beginners should probably be made aware that pedals will be extra.
- don simon fbpe 4 hours 41 min ago
What's wrong with dropping down on to the Millenium Bridge, or the swing bridge, then the brief, but satisfying climb back up the hill? #training....
- chrisonabike 5 hours 22 min ago
The relatives might of course disagree, but in general I'd countenance a relatively light sentence* if only we could fix it so that those who...
- ktache 6 hours 1 min ago
Id forgotten that I got a second hand set of project two's for my getting to work bike over twenty years back.
- Veganpotter 6 hours 58 min ago
My bet is that all these tires popping off are from people with bad pressure gauges or they're simply just putting too much air in on purpose. ...
- chrisonabike 8 hours 14 min ago
David9694 - you were right! These new autonomous vehicles really are conspiring to run out of control!...
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17 comments
Maybe (but probably not) the one benefit of leaving the EU will be a change in road building practice. Instead of the cheaper warm mix asphalt used now for environmental reasons, we might return to using hot mix asphalt. Then our roads won't start to deteriorate and crumble 3 months after been laid. Which of course proves a false economy in the long run due to the much more frequent maintenance required, plus the environmental costs of repairing the damage done to vehicles from potholes such as punctures, wheel dents and suspension damage. Not to mention the closures for repair resulting in diversions and delays.
yep and if I could tell you about the way the private sector rips off the public you wouldn;t be shocked I suppose.
Biggest con ever by the the Tories to convince people outsourcing was cost effective in any way.
No surprise to me at all , it was obvious from the start.
Regarding pothole repairs, I have come to the conclusion that Shropshire Council's contractors sometimes do such a really sh*t repair on purpose, knowing that they will be asked to redo it within months, sometimes weeks.
Saw a fly on the wall about council workers a while back
Council pest control bloke wants to get rid of the rats and to stop them coming back.
He wants to get his job done and move onto something else. This one had pride in his job.
Commercial pest control want to get rid of the rats and then they get to come back.
Repeat business is good business.
of course the Tories removed the ability of the NAO to look at this, no shock why of course.
it happens, I have seen it (from the contractor side) not directly involved but thats how they make the money.
an example I was told by a fellow worker. They were doing some work for one the big departments of State, at the weekend they had to move two PC's for a reshuffle.
In the past the departments own IT would do this, 5 mins, easy, the contractor charged 500 each as could only be done out of hours for them ....
Farce because no civil servant who signs these are experts in contract negotiations or frankly knows what they are signing.
there wouldn't be a problem under the old scheme where councils had loads of spare labourers... no, everything has to be sub contracted out now and it will always cost more...
Direct labour... the labour force that could be redirected from fixing potholes to clearing snow and ice etc.
Something that is direly lacking now in councils labour forces...
Every bleeping thing has to be put out to tender now whereas previously, they just got on and did it...
Austerity Britain. The roads are falling apart, but new car sales are up!
Would gravel roads hold up better than our current tarmacadam roads? Might be the gravel bike is the way to go.
Roads get the lion's share of the news, but has anyone looked at pavements (footways)? They are, almost without exception, terrible. Broken flagstones everywhere (always caused by illegally parked vehicles), obstacles left right and centre (poles, trees, shop signs, bins, vehicles again), very poor drainage, etc. Not to mention that in this country we drop the pavement when private access to a drive is required, so you're constantly bobbing up and down as you walk along. In other countries, the pavement remains level while the motorist drives up from the road. And then you have to give way at every single side road.
Compared to these issues, the odd pothole every hundred yards or so isn't really a problem for me.
Good point. It's especially rough on the very elderly or wheelchair-users.
You could also mention often absurdly narrow pavements, or the ones made so by ridiculous legal parking bays (God forbid drivers shouldn't be able to park directly outside their house, even if it means taking 90% of the pavement for them to do so).
And much of the damage to paving stones is due to people illegally driving vehicles onto them, whether for parking on (weirdly, itself legal outside London), or access to converted-garden parking places where they haven't paid for a dropped kerb.
Anyway, its another reason why one shouldn't even _want_ to cycle on pavements!
Basically, central Govt is aiming to diminish Local Government by reducing the grant each council receives year on year. Most have been reduced by 1/3 since 2009 and are trying to survive to the next local elections. We are told they are rubbish by the Tory press and we will be better off keeping more of our and our companies and banks earnings in our/their pockets. Its the same pressure that sees us reduce our social services which leads to older people unable to be discharged from hospital. Most councils don't have the money to keep on top of potholes let alone the other regular maintenance issues. 4x4s are an issue but my feeling is that people buy them because they believe that they protect their precious ones when on the road - they have no thought about the impact on other users and, on minor roads this breaks down the shoulder because of insufficient width and driving skill - and obviously, a threat to vulnerable road users.
maybe if councils kept on top of pot holes and road damage it wouldn't cost that much, like with the roads by me, the amount of HGVs and farm traffic along with general cars, the roads of are in worse condition than gravel tracks, and i wouldn't dare ride a bike with less than 40mm tyres, as it'd be like using iron belts as tyres.
Road damage is all about axle weight, as a rule of thumb "for reasonably strong surfaces" it is proportional to the fourth power of the axle weight, i.e. double the weight and it is 16 times the damage, think about that next time you order something online and a big truck delivers it.
To what extent is the deteriorating state of our roads due to the increasing proportion of SUVs / 4x4s on our roads ?
Yup - and people buy SUVS / 4x4s because the roads are in such a poor state. Chicken/egg.
fatbeggaronabike, yes, yes he is.
Councillor Martin Tett, LGA Transport spokesman, said:
"Councils share the frustration of motorists having to pay to drive on roads
Really how about people like me who don't have a car but still pay the same council tax, vat, ni, tax on pay etc etc
or is he yet another moton that thinks he pays road tax?