Government promises £140 million for pothole patch-up

AP

The government has promised an extra £140 million to help local councils patch up potholes on Britain’s roads. This includes those damaged in the major flooding that occured during Christmas and early February.

Local authorities that suffered the worst of the recent flooding will receive £36.5 million to help repair flood-ruined roads, while the rest of the money will be doled out by the Department for Transport (DfT). The DfT says it hopes the majority of the funds can be distributed within the next few days, to give councils a chance to get on with road repairs as soon as possible.

Winter is always a tough season for the UK’s roads, as the combination of cold weather, heavy rainfall and lots of traffic conspires to break up many road surfaces. And this winter – one of the wettest on record – erosion and structural damage has been especially harsh.

In a statement, the DfT said: "Councils have a responsibility to maintain their roads properly, but the exceptional weather has caused significant additional damage, increasing the amount of damage to the local road network. As the flood waters have receded and councils have been able to assess the impact, it is clear that these have been particularly severe in certain areas."

But while the government’s reaction to the post-flood state of the UK’s roads has been welcomed, some experts have voiced concerns that the general standard of the UK’s roads should be safeguarded.

Malcolm Bingham, the Freight Transport Association’s head of road network management policy, said: “We have suffered from years of missed opportunities in highway maintenance and now is the time to take action to create resilience in the network – something that is vital to the economic future of the freight and logistics industry.”

Although the government says it has spent more than £1 billion on local road maintenance for the 2013-2014 financial year, the UK’s road network has slipped to 28th in the world for its quality, according to the World Economic Forum. That puts it behind both Chile and Cyprus and equal with Namibia.

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By Matt Rigby, content editor, MSN Cars