The cost to repair all the potholes on local English and Welsh roads would be around £18 billion, industry body, the Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA) has found. Only 51% of the local road network maintained by councils were reported by the local authority to be in good condition.
Roads, it said, were only being resurfaced once every 97 years, it said, and nearly a sixth of local roads, or 32,500 miles, had less than five years of structural life remaining.
The AIA chairman labelled this a “national disgrace,” with the group’s annual report being a survey of local authorities carried out between December and February. 79% of local councils completed the survey, with their answers suggesting that the extra investment to tackle potholes has failed to provide “noticeable improvements.”
Nearly two million potholes were filled in over the past year, the report found, but each local authority would need more than an additional £8 billion last year to maintain their road networks at target levels and prevent more decline.
Bringing local roads to an ideal condition, it found, would cost £18.6 billion, with the work taking around 12 years to finish. The money would still be insufficient to cover the cost of potholes that appear on motorways and other major highways which are maintained by National Highways in Enggland and two public sector organisations in Wales.
Pothole-related call outs in January, according to the AA, had risen by 18% across the UK, with 6,235 only in the east of England.
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