Civils contractors have welcomed the Government’s announcement of an extra £46 million to fix potholes on England’s roads
The funding will go towards repairing almost one million potholes outside London. The £46 million announced today is on top of the £75 million Pothole Action Fund, first announced in 2016. Commenting, Director of External Affairs for the Civil Engineering Contractors Association (CECA) Marie-Claude Hemming said: “This funding is welcome, but it is a drop in the ocean of what will be required to address the pothole deficit on the nation’s roads.
“This year, English councils outside London spent £2.48 billion on local highways maintenance, when an estimated £3.05 billion was needed – a shortfall of £570 million.
“Furthermore, Local Authorities needs over £12 billion to address a backlog in work on England’s roads. This figure that has remained unchanged over the last four years.
“CECA has long argued that too much money is spent on reactive maintenance of our roads, when preventative maintenance in twenty times less expensive per square metre than patching and mending potholes.
“Furthermore, we believe that a one-off programme of intensive improvements to local roads would significantly reduce the long-term cost of maintaining the network.
“Government must work with local authorities to develop a radical long-term funding plan, and to consider ways in which prudential borrowing might be implemented to allow such an intensive programme to take place.”
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