The government has announced it is ploughing £100m into the roads to fix potholes left by the poor weather last year.
That’s despite the fact councils road maintenance budgets are to be cut by £160m over the next four years – meaning it is likely the potholes will merely be filled as opposed to the roads being resurfaced.
Photo courtesy of Michael Gil via Flickr
It’s estimated that pothole numbers have soared 90% since the snow in December. Green Flag believe that half of drivers have had an accident or near-miss after swerving to avoid a pothole. But almost 70% never report holes.
Many light-users or non drivers would say “just avoid them”, but the current frequency of them – approximately ten in every mile long stretch of road – means that is just impossible.
Some couriers have reported holes as deep as 14”, which are undoubtedly going to do some damage. It’s an inconvenience to any driver; but when your livelihood relies on covering hundreds of miles if not thousands of miles a week, it’s much more than that.
Potholes not only cause damage to tyres, but the size of the current ones are effecting wheels, wishbones and suspensions, resulting in hundreds of pounds worth of damage. It’s now believed that councils are forking out more cash in compensating drivers for damage caused by potholes, than they actually are to fix the holes!
The resulting effects from potholes can be seen elsewhere; increased accidents and claims caused from swerving holes, as well as hitting them and damaging your vehicle, are likely to push insurance premiums up even further. Not only that but ‘no-go’ areas and slow traffic due to the sheer volume of potholes can increase the length of journeys, which obviously causes problems for couriers.
The AA believes that £9.5bn is needed to make all of England and Wales roads perfect.