Pothole damage on the rise
Potholes are damaging twice as many cars today as they were 10 years ago, according to a new study conducted by the RAC.
It found that 0.9% of all RAC call outs in the year to June 2016 were for pothole-related damage. That is up from 0.4% in the 12 months to June 2006.
According the RAC, these results expose an overall low standard in the quality of British roads, which it says have only deteriorated in the last decade.
David Bizley, the RAC’s chief engineer, said, ‘This analysis suggests that the quality of the UK’s roads suffered a steady decline from the start of 2007 through to the end of 2009, presumably due to lack of investment in maintenance and resurfacing during worsening economic times.
‘Since then, injections of short-term funding have addressed the immediate aftermath of periods of extreme weather but have not been sufficient to tackle the underlying problem. Bold and imaginative action is now required to address the underlying deficiencies in local roads.’
The government has announced plans to create a Roads Fund financed by vehicle excise duty, which would help to pay for future development of major roads. However, the majority of pothole damage occurs on local roads.
