Throwing money into potholes is madness, says AIA

Asphalt Industry Alliance responds to Government’s £50 million Pothole Action Fund announcement

THE Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA) says that while today’s government announcement of a £50 million Pothole Action Fund for England in 2016/17 might, on the face of it, seem like good news, it is actually another clear sign that the battle to rescue the country’s crumbling local road network is being lost.

The Department for Transport has announced today how £50 million of funding will be used to repair nearly a million potholes across the country over the next 12 months. More than 100 councils in England are to receive funding to help remove around 943,000 potholes from local roads during this financial year.

The funding has been made available as part of the £250 million Pothole Action Fund included in last month’s Budget, which aims to fix more than 4 million potholes by 2020/21.

Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin said: ‘This is just one part of our unprecedented investment in local road maintenance over the next five years. We are giving a record £6 billion to local authorities in England that will improve journeys across the regions.’

In total, the Government is spending £6.1 billion on local highways maintenance between 2015/16 and 2020/21. As part of this investment, the Pothole Action Fund will give local authorities in England £50 million a year, over the next five years, to help them tackle more than 4 million potholes.

However, responding to today’s announcement, AIA chairman Alan Mackenzie argued that while the £50 million Pothole Action Fund for England in 2016/17 might seem like good news, it would do nothing to address the cumulative effect of decades of underfunding and would perpetuate the downward spiral of the ‘patch and mend’ approach.

‘The most efficient way to deal with the problem of our failing roads is to fix them properly and stop potholes forming in the first place,’ he said. ‘Poorly maintained roads simply cannot withstand the combination of severe weather and increased traffic, which is why potholes form, and which will, in time, undermine the entire structure of the road.

‘Our research has shown that an invest-to-save approach pays dividends with every planned investment providing long-term savings of more than twice the amount spent. Throwing money into potholes is complete madness.’