14.10.13
Road repairs would cost £10.5bn to clear
The average car driver is now paying £1,117 to the Treasury each year, as councils struggle to manage a £10.5bn backlog of road repairs.
The Local Government Association (LGA) is calling for greater funding for highways maintenance, for which councils’ funding will have been cut by 20% by 2015.
Research from the RAC showed the Government collects around £38bn each year through Vehicle Excise Duty, fuel duty and VAT on fuel.
Cllr Peter Box, chair of the LGA’s Economy and Transport Board, said: “Councils are on the side of hard-pressed motorists, keeping a lid on parking charges and fixing more potholes than ever before, in the face of deep funding cuts imposed by the Government.
“The stark reality is that the average car driver is paying 30 times more to fill the Treasury’s coffers to use a transport system that is crumbling under decades of underfunding.
“The backlog in repairs is growing longer each year with the town hall bill to clear it at £10.5bn and rising. That is why councils now need increased and consistent highways funding to invest in the widespread resurfacing projects desperately needed for a long-term improvement.”
A BBC survey last week showed that road maintenance and potholes were causing huge concern to the public – they were the area of public services that by far the most people thought had got worse in the last five years.
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