Potholes continue to cause havoc on parts of Britain’s roads and the AIA, whose members supply much of the materials used for filling in holes, have outlined the simple solution to England and Wales’s deteriorating road conditions. The Government announced towards the end of March that councils in England will receive an extra £50million for potholes and flood resilience. A further £151million will go to reward best practice. But the AIA has insisted local authorities across England and Wales must be granted with at least £1.5bilion each year for the next ten years in order to bring the local road network up to reasonable conditions.

We have spent a £1 billion in the last decade filling potholes, which actually is wasted money

Rick Green

Speaking to Express.co.uk, AIA chairman Rick Green said: “We filled 1.8 million potholes in the last year. We are filling a pothole every 17 seconds.

“So, you define a crisis.

“But yes, there are an awful lot of potholes.

“We have spent a £1billion in the last decade filling potholes, which actually is wasted money because potholes really are the symptom of poorly maintained roads.

“They aren’t the problem is themselves.

“If we maintained the roads properly the utopia would be that there would never be any potholes anymore.”

The AIA’s survey on road maintenance found that it would take highways departments “10 years to get local roads back into a reasonable steady state”.

Research by British roadside assistance company Green Flag and Censuswide of 2,000 British drivers in March 2019 found that Britons experience around seven potholes per journey.

The research also found 91 percent of drivers wish their council would do more to address the problems of potholes in their region.

Simon Henrick at Green Flag commented: “The problem of potholes on UK roads means there is an increased risk of car damage. With this in mind, it is important to stay safe when driving and to regularly check your vehicle and tyres for damage.

“Our research found that only a third of drivers know how to check their tyres for damage, and only 49 per cent know how to change a tyre, so Green Flag is doing all we can to ensure drivers know how to carry out basic safety checks before a journey and carry out simple maintenance to their vehicles.”

But Transport Secretary Chris Grayling supported the Government’s latest road spending announcement and said: “Every motorist knows that potholes have been a problem in the last few years.

“That is why the Government is continuing to step up its funding to local authorities to address this.

“It is now up to highways authorities to innovate and use new technologies to solve the problem.”

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