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Motoring news

'Years' needed to clear backlog in road repairs

01/05/2009

It would take more than 10 years and hundreds of millions of pounds to fix the "crisis" on England and Wales' roads, according to an annual survey by road-building group the Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA).

The alliance's ALARM survey for 2009 found a total shortfall in the road structural budget of £861 million, and says that councils in England (excluding London) need an estimated 13 years to clear their backlog of repairs.

For Wales this figure is put at 15.6 years, while for London it is 10.7 years.

And responses from local authority highways departments suggest that fixing all the problems in one "catch up" programme would cost each local authority in England £58.2 million. The equivalent figure for London authorities is £38.3 million, and £22.3 million for each council in Wales.

Despite the overwhelming amount of work still needed, the survey found that close to one million potholes were filled last year, at a cost of £63.2 million.

However, the survey does not take into account the cost of fixing the rash of potholes caused by February's unusually cold weather - though the AIA praised the reaction of councils to this challenge.

Chairman Mike Linley said that the problems were caused by "historical underfunding", adding that more recently there had been no "significant commitment to stopping the rot".

Transport spokesman for the Local Government Association, councillor David Sparks, said that local authorities were not able to keep up with the "spiralling cost" of maintaining roads.

"The situation is made worse by 'no win, no fee' lawyers who are eating up almost half of the road maintenance budget," he added.