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Call for more money to repair winter-damaged roads

Local councillors say road condition remains an issue following severe winter weather

FURTHER funding is still required to repair local roads across England and Wales,  particularly those damaged by recent severe winters, according to a new survey recently published by the Asphalt Industry Alliance.

More than half of councillors who participated in the survey carried out at the Local Government Group Conference in July, said the £200 million injection of emergency funding from central government in early 2011 had allowed some additional short-term repair work to be carried out, but was still not enough to cover all the winter damage to roads. A further third said it had made no significant difference.

Forty-four percent of those polled called for increased funding from government to help maintain local roads, while a third, recognizing that this is unlikely, said alternative means of funding should be made available.

The majority of councillors surveyed (78%) stated they were not satisfied with the condition of their local road network and 90% said road condition remained an issue in their area following the severe winter weather.

Alan Mackenzie, chairman of the Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA), said: ‘The survey highlights the concerns of local councillors who are faced with a crumbling road network in desperate need of repair and diminishing available road maintenance funding.

‘The AIA is calling on government to find new approaches to fund sustained road maintenance through long-term preventative programmes. Investing now will save huge sums in the future. In the current financial climate it is critical that the nation’s roads are fit for economic recovery.’

Local authority roads account for over 95% of the country’s network. Authorities continue to report an annual shortfall in the highway maintenance funding they receive from central government and the amount required to maintain the roads.

In 2010/11 the shortfall amounted to £895 million, a 12% rise on the 2009/10 figure. Local authorities have estimated the level of one-off investment needed to clear the backlog and get roads back into reasonable condition to be £10.65 billion (aggregated across England and Wales).

 
 

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