Commenting on the first National Pothole Day, Labour’s Shadow Roads Minister, Richard Burden MP said:
“Britain faces a national pothole epidemic. A third of local roads are in urgent need of repair. Millions of journeys for motorists, cyclists, motorcyclists and other road users are being blighted by potholes and battered roads.
But Tory Ministers are more bothered about a top-down reorganisation of the Highways Agency which looks after just 2% of UK roads. They are also conning the public about what they are doing about pothole Britain. Budgets for local road maintenance have been savaged and in real terms will be lower in 2020 that they were five years ago. It is time the Government sorted their priorities out.
On National Pothole Day people are taking the problem into our own hands. The Street Repairs App will help people report potholes and road problems wreaking havoc in their areas, and help councils to resolve them. It is time the Government listened and fixed pothole Britain.”
NOTES
1. National Pothole Day
National Pothole Day will be held on Thursday 15 January 2015 and aims to raise public awareness about the pothole problem in Britain. It is being organised by Street Repairs, who have developed an app which acts enables the public to report information about potholes and road maintenance problems.
2. Local Road Maintenance
The National Audit Office report on ‘Reducing Costs in the Department for Transport’ showed that the Government planned to cut roads maintenance spending by £1.2 billion from 2010/11 – 2014/15.
Appendix Two: Changes to the Department’s budgets over the spending review period, page 33: http://www.nao.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/10121700.pdf
The Institute of Civil Engineers State of the Infrastructure Survey in 2014 stated that a third of local roads are in urgent need of attention.
http://www.ice.org.uk/getattachment/8185ef54-ca0d-457d-8a1f-d0e2212e1fb3/State-of-the-Nation--Infrastructure-2014.aspx
Parliamentary Questions reveal that the Government’s commitment of £6 billion to local highways authorities from 2015-2021 (£976 million a year) will be a real terms decline in local road maintenance spending from 2010:
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201314/cmhansrd/cm131122/text/131122w0001.htm#131122w0001.htm_wqn59
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201314/cmhansrd/cm131211/text/131211w0001.htm#131211w0001.htm_wqn10
A recent Local Government Association report revealed that the Government will spend £1.4 million per mile for maintenance of the strategic roads network, but only £31,700 per mile for local roads, over the six-year period to 2021.
http://www.local.gov.uk/documents/10180/5854661/L14-473+Better+Roads+for+England_11.pdf/a7a5fec1-dd21-4220-a9f4-f9d4c2cee778
DfT surveys show that while 91 per cent of the public are happy with the current upkeep of the strategic road network, only 30 per cent are for local roads.
NAO, Maintaining Strategic Roads Infrastructure: Roads,
http://www.nao.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Maintaining-Strategic-Infrastructure-Roads.pdf, 6 June 2014
3. Infrastructure Bill
The Government’s Infrastructure Bill, which is currently concluding Committee Stage in Parliament, proposes to reform the Highways Agency into a government owned company responsible for the construction, management and maintenance of 2% of Britain’s roads – the strategic road network.
Labour have criticised the Bill for ignoring the problems facing local roads, and have proposed amendments to increase priority of local roads in infrastructure planning and investment in the future.
http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2014-15/infrastructure.html
4. Street Repairs App
Street Repairs is an independent app which seeks to make the process of reporting road and community defects much easier, by providing a single point of contact through which people can submit a problem to their local authority in real time. Smartphone technology enables people to attach photographs and give a detailed description of the road problem in their community.
Once the problem is reported through the app, Street Repairs contacts the responsible local authority, and work with them to help prioritise the works that need carrying out. The aim is to assist local authorities in managing their annual maintenance budgets. Street Repairs monitor local authority progress and follow up on cases. Street Repairs was launched in 2013 and has grown significantly in usage since then.
Please Click Here To Download Our Free App And Support National Pothole Day.
