The price of a good road system

It's official. The national and local road network in England and Wales is in its poorest condition since inspections started 23 years ago, according to the National Road Maintenance Condition Survey 1999 (see p3).

In addition, the Refined Bitumen Association's annual survey revealed that one in six councils believes highway maintenance under-funding is a threat to road users' safety. Under current funding levels, local authorities can only resurface their roads once every 78 years, as opposed to the recommended 10 to 20 years. Local authorities paid out almost £50m last year to road users for accidents or damage to vehicles caused by the structural condition of roads.

All of this has an air of weary familiarity. We hear it every year and yet nothing much seems to change. The possible solutions have all been well rehearsed before - ring fencing road taxes, siphoning off some of the tax on petrol, etc etc.

In the end, it does come down to money. The Government says it is committed to increasing road maintenance spending by 20% by 2002, but even this will have little impact on the £5bn backlog in repairs.

The privatisation of road maintenance could help the budget stretch further. Sections of the national network are already being maintained by the private sector as part of DBFO road contracts. The HA is about to trial a PFI-style contract on one of its super agency maintenance areas and Portsmouth City Council is awaiting a decision on whether it can invite tenders for a PFI contract to maintain its key roads.

PFI will not be a panacea, though. Ultimately the question is what price we put on a good road system and - more importantly - the lives of those who use it.



BOXTEXT: Local authorities can only resurface their roads once every 78 years, as opposed to the recommended 10 to 20 years