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Warranty Direct is reiterating its call for a long-term strategic plan for maintaining the UK’s local road network, following the publication today of the Audit Commission’s report on highway funding.
The report highlights how, while the cost of maintaining roads is now 50 percent higher than it was 10 years ago, increasing financial pressure on councils means that highway budgets are facing significant cuts.
Warranty Direct’s road maintenance campaign website, www.Potholes.co.uk, has been highlighting the false economy of councils’ ‘patch and mend’ mentality as well as the need for increased highways funding for local roads since it was set up in 2007.
Warranty Direct managing director, Duncan McClure Fisher, says today’s report underlines even further the urgent need for Central Government to formulate a 10-year plan to stop Britain’s roads crumbling into an irreparable state.
McClure Fisher said: “I welcome today’s report and agree with everything it says. But it’s nothing new. Through our Potholes.co.uk website, we’ve been highlighting exactly these problems for years.
“Local roads suffer the most and need the most attention – years of patchwork repairs have caused this issue and £50 million of further damage done by utility companies digging up the roads only amplifies the problem.
“That’s why a planned, strategic approach must be taken and collaboration between councils, as well as local businesses, is the way forward.”
Motorists can locate potholes, warn other road users of damaged roads or simply make their feelings about road maintenance known by visiting www.potholes.co.uk.
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