Last spring, one particular pothole under water resulted in 11 separate incidents of damage to vehicles in a single morning before the local authority took emergency action.
Research carried out among SME owners by RAC Business in January 2015, suggests the cost to businesses of a single vehicle being off the road is up to £250 a day. If you rely on four or five vehicles to run your business, having just one off the road puts a serious dent in your operations.
The cost to businesses of a single vehicle being off the road is up to £250 a day
That is why we think it is crucial that those responsible for both local and strategic roads should adopt an approach which fixes defects ’once only’ by addressing the underlying cause and eradicating the repetitive ‘patching up’ seen in recent years.
Just before Christmas, the Government outlined how £6bn would be made available between now and 2020/21 to improve the condition of local roads. Any funding that is properly targeted is to be welcomed, but we question whether this really goes far enough in the context of the backlog of £12 billion in England as reported by the AIA.
Even taking into account existing investment by Government since 2010, the associated £10bn is spread over a 10 year period and is still a long way short of what is required to return local roads to a state that is fit for purpose.
With an election less than six months away, all of the political parties need to recognise the importance of our roads to the economy.
Well maintained roads enable big and small companies alike to get on with running their businesses without incurring the costs and disruption arising from damage due to potholes.
