Councils in England face a £165 million funding gap to repair roads battered by extreme winter weather, local authority leaders have said.
The warning comes as highways officers up and down the country assess the damage caused to roads last month during the coldest December in 100 years.
The Local Government Association, which represents more than 350 councils, has warned that towns and cities face a double whammy of crumbling roads and swingeing cuts to their highways maintenance budgets.
Town halls, responsible for more than 95 per cent of the road network, fixed an unprecedented number of potholes last year, with LGA estimates suggesting that more than 2 million were repaired.
After large parts of the country were engulfed by snow and ice last month, councils are bracing themselves for another huge recovery operation this year.
But local authorities will receive £165million less capital funding from Government to fix roads this year than they did in 2010.
Cllr Peter Box, Chairman of the Local Government Association’s Economy and Transport Board, said:
“Ensuring our roads are kept up to a safe standard for motorists is a priority for councils and we will be working flat out to repair as many potholes as we possibly can.
“The coldest December in 100 years will have taken a massive toll on our roads and this damage is coming at a time when councils are being made to scale back their highways maintenance budgets.
“Last year councils on average fixed one pothole every 33 seconds. With tens of millions of pounds being cut from road maintenance budgets this year it is going to be a huge struggle for already-stretched highways teams to keep up.”
Potholes form when water on roads seeps into the surface and opens up cracks when it freezes and expands. The process is repeated over and over again as ice and snow thaws and re-freezes during winter weather, cracking roads apart and leaving holes in their wake.
Examples of work being undertaken by councils to fix potholes include:
Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council has fixed nearly 1,000 potholes in the past two weeks and has set a page up on its website to make it easier for people to report holes in the road.
Southampton City Council is predicting a 20 per cent increase in the number of potholes on city roads this year and has invested in a new instant pothole repair solution called Viafix which can be poured into potholes to provide a permanent fix
Lancashire County Council spent £16.9 million fixing potholes and resurfacing roads last year and expects to have to spend about the same this year.
Gloucestershire County Council repaired about 90,000 potholes in 2010 – more than the previous three years combined – and is now assessing the damage caused by last month’s extreme weather.
Dorset County Council has fixed about 3,200 potholes since October 2010. Its highways team is using an infra-red ‘Nu-Phalt’ cooker which repairs roads more quickly with less waste.
ENDS
Author: LGA Media Office
Contact: LGA Media Office, Tel: 020 7664 3333
NOTES TO EDITORS
1 Following the severe winter of 2009/10, the estimated additional cost of road repairs for an average shire county council last year was £5 million.
2 The average cost of fixing one pothole is £78 for English councils outside London, according to the Asphalt Industry Allliance’s 2010 Alarm report: http://www.asphaltindustryalliance.com/images/library/files/Alarm_2010_web.pdf
3 From April the Department for Transport will be cutting £65 million from the Highways Maintenance Budget funding it gives to councils in England to carry out road repairs. The Highways Maintenance Budget funding allowance for councils in England breaks down as follows:
2010/11: £871 million
2011/12: £806 million
2012/13: £779 million
2013/14: £750 million
2014/15: £707 million
4 Last year the Government also gave councils an additional £100million to fix potholes following extreme winter weather.
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