Drivers are on road to hell if £500m pothole fund is cut, say experts

2022-11-04

Drivers are on a road to hell if £500m fund to fix potholes is cut by Government to ease financial burden, experts warn

Campaigners warn that pothole funds could be used to help country’s finances
Council chiefs also fear that the £2.5billion Potholes Fund could be pruned
An AA spokesperson confirmed that the nation’s roads are in an ‘awful state’
Figures show half of smaller residential roads are in need of resurfacing

Motorists face ‘a road to hell’ if funds for fixing potholes are cut, campaigners warned last night.

There are growing fears that a £500million annual fund capable of fixing around 10million potholes is being targeted to help plug the hole in the country’s finances.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has warned of spending cuts across all departments.

Council chiefs fear that the £2.5billion Potholes Fund, set up to give town halls an extra £500million a year between 2020-21 and 2024-25, could be pruned for the next two years.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has warned of spending cuts across all departments and there are growing fears that the fund for fixing around 10million potholes is being targeted to help plug the hole in the country’s finances

With the cost of fixing potholes soaring, they say the fund’s value must rise with inflation.

Jack Cousens of the AA said: ‘With the Pothole Fund caught in the crosshairs of cuts, drivers would be on a road to hell.

‘Roads across the country are in an awful state and winter is just around the corner.’

It comes after Transport Secretary Mark Harper said his department was ‘looking at all of the programmes we’ve got’ for savings ahead of the November 17 budget statement.

Councillor David Renard, the Local Government Association’s transport spokesman, warned the cost of filling potholes has already risen by an estimated 25 per cent due to higher energy bills involved in producing concrete and other materials.

He added: ‘Councils across the country are facing unprecedented increased costs to repair our local roads, keep our street lights switched on and invest in improved local infrastructure.

‘The Government should meet these increased costs in the upcoming Autumn Statement, otherwise they risk the current pothole repair backlog growing even longer and councils being forced to cut back on essential road repairs.’

It came as new figures released by the Department for Transport yesterday showed up to half of smaller, unclassified residential roads are in need of resurfacing in some areas of the country.

Motorists face ‘a road to hell’ if funds for fixing potholes are cut, campaigners warned last night

Meanwhile, up to a quarter of B and C roads were in need of fixing in some areas.

Overall, 15 per cent of unclassified roads in England were in the ‘Red’ category, the worst ranking.

Councils are responsible for resurfacing and fixing smaller roads from their own budgets, but the Potholes Fund was established by the Government to boost spending on fixing them. The average pothole costs around £50 to fill in, meaning it could fix around 10million.

A report by the Asphalt Industry Alliance in March estimated it would cost £12billion to fix the entire backlog of potholes across England.

The report also highlighted that, on average, roads are only resurfaced once every 70 years.

A Department for Transport spokesman said: ‘We are investing more than £5billion from 2020 to 2025 into highways maintenance – including the Potholes Fund announced at the 2020 Budget.

‘This will fill millions of potholes a year, repair dozens of bridges, and resurface roads up and down the country.’

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