Closed 01/07/2008

Road funding, or rather the shortfalls in road funding, is a subject close the QPA's heart. The AIA's ALARM survey showed a £7.5m shortfall per local authority presenting a real barrier against getting our roads up to scratch. But is this lack of funding biting where you live? Is the road on which you live in need of repairs?

Commentary

The results of our June vote on the state of the nation’s roads has revealed that 64.86% of voters feel the road where they live is in need of repair, almost two times the number who feel happy with their neighbourhood roads (35.14%).

These figures support what QPA already knows. The findings of the 13th Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance (ALARM) Survey revealed that the condition of UK roads is dire and there is a significant average shortfall of £7.5m in road funding per local authority. It is therefore not at all surprising that a high percentage of voters consider the state of their road to be poor.

The ALARM survey – which gathers data from local authorities on how frequently and to what standard roads are maintained, the funding available for this work and information on related issues, such as road safety – highlighted a number of worrying statistics:

•£1bn extra in council maintenance budgets is needed to repair our roads, with some roads facing a 65-year wait for resurfacing.
•Local authorities have estimated they are receiving on average only half the budget they need to keep roads in a decent condition.
•There is an average 11-year backlog of road resurfacing work.
•Local roads in England and Wales were dug up by utilities companies 2.5 million times last year, in addition to a reported 1 million potholes.
•Trenches made in roads for pipes or cables can cut through several layers and cause serious problems for road maintenance. It is believed that digging trenches reduces the lifespan of a road by a third.

The Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA), on behalf of the QPA and the Refined Bitumen Association (RBA), is running a media campaign aimed at raising awareness in local and national government, as well as with the public, of the need for improved funding for road maintenance and the importance of ring-fencing those funds to keep Britain's roads in good repair. The ALARM Survey is key to that campaign. Extensive media coverage of the survey included items on BBC News24 and Radio5Live, in total there were features on 18 television and 85 radio programmes and 122 articles in public and technical press including The Times and Daily Mail.

The campaign is widely quoted by local authorities when they seek to secure additional funding for highway maintenance and stresses that safe and consistent road conditions in Britain are essential.