Roads 'worst for 23 years'

by Tim Wood



Pressure groups and the Conservatives are accusing the Government of failing to deal with the appalling standard of roads in England and Wales after a damning survey revealed that they are now in their poorest condition since annual inspections began 23 years ago.

The National Road Maintenance Condition Survey 1999 showed that nearly 240km of motorway lanes (10% more than last year) have no remaining residual life; the condition of trunk roads had deteriorated by 3% between 1998 and 1999; and overall spending on road maintenance had gone down by 2.4% at constant prices.

Jonathan Bullock, head of communications at the British Road Federation, said: "The survey confirms that our roads are in an appalling condition, that Government funding is down and that it has not achieved its objective of halting the decline, let alone restoring conditions to an acceptable level.

"The cost to the country of inadequate road maintenance is enormous as delayed work will eventually have to be done but at a far greater cost and disruption. Meanwhile, there will be more accidents and environmental nuisance as people are forced to use dangerous roads."

BRF estimates that a £5bn backlog in local road maintenance is required and recommends an increase in overall road expenditure from £5.1bn to £9.1bn over the next 10 years if the Government is to achieve its objective of having a travel system to rival the best in Europe.

The study also showed that despite ministerial claims of increased funding for road repairs, spending in real terms had fallen from £2.1bn to £1.9bn since Labour came to power in 1997.

Shadow minister for transport Bernard Jenkin said: "It was a Labour lie that they would make road maintenance a priority."

In response, a Department of the Environment Transport and the Regions spokesman said that the Government was strongly committed to improving the transport infrastructure.

"Extra millions have been invested in road maintenance to address years of underfunding and decline," he said.

"By 2002 we will have increased spending on all road maintenance by 20% and have provided £2.8bn for trunk and local roads in 1999-2000, which is a rise of 10% in one year. Road conditions declined because of under investment in the mid-1990s. We are committed to restoring the cuts made on local road maintenance but improvements will take time," the spokesman said.

In mid-April, a survey of local authority highway departments revealed that they required nearly three times their current budgets to maintain roads adequately and that £1bn was needed to balance the shortfall in structural maintenance.