An extra £500 million to fix potholes "will save lives", according to Cycling UK chief executive Sarah Mitchell, but the funding boost is only the start in making the UK’s roads safer for cycling, as the government issues an ultimatum to councils that don't make sufficient progress in repairing roads.
From mid-April, local authorities in England will receive an extra £500 million, enough to fill 7 million potholes a year, according to the Department for Transport, as part of the government’s £1.6 billion highway maintenance budget.
That funding falls well short of the estimated £17 billion required to fix all of the potholes in the UK, according to the Local Government Association (LGA).
Cycling UK’s Mitchell has welcomed the renewed focus on fixing the country’s roads – but highlights the need for long-term investment in safety and infrastructure for cyclists.
“The investment to rebuild our roads is hugely welcomed,” says Mitchell. “We’ve been working to highlight the need to fund and fix the nation’s potholes for decades now. Not only are they an inconvenience that can damage a person’s car, but to people who cycle they’re a serious safety risk.
“Whether in rural or urban areas, potholes can cause crashes, potentially putting cyclists in the path of an oncoming car or sending them over their handlebars where they could suffer serious injury.
“On average, a staggering 40 cyclists are killed or seriously injured each year. Commitment to fixing our nation's potholes will save lives, but we must ensure that funding addresses safety and infrastructure concerns in both rural and urban communities. Only then can we ensure that these efforts truly benefit all cyclists and road users nationwide.”
As part of the funding announcement, all councils in England will now be required to publish annual progress reports on their websites, detailing how much they are spending and how many potholes they have filled, to improve public confidence and accountability in what the transport secretary, Heidi Alexander, describes as the “pothole plague”.
Councils that fail to show sufficient progress risk seeing 25 per cent of their share of the £500 million in additional funding withheld.
“British people are bored of seeing their politicians aimlessly pointing at potholes with no real plan to fix them,” says the prime minister, Keir Starmer. “That ends with us. We’ve done our part by handing councils the cash and certainty they need – now it’s up to them to get on with the job, put that money to use and prove they’re delivering for their communities.”
However, Lucy Nethsingha, leader of Cambridgeshire County Council, says the additional scrutiny on council spending will wrap local authorities in red tape.
"The implication that we are not spending it well is not helpful," says Nethsingha, adding that the funding in place is "nowhere near the amount that is needed".
She adds: "It's not clear that there is extra money coming as a result of this announcement. There is extra red tape and I don't think that's going to be helpful."
According to the RAC, there are six potholes per mile in England and Wales, and Adam Hug, transport spokesperson for the Local Government Association, says more must be done to prevent potholes from occurring in the first place.
“The additional £500 million will help start to address the previously ever-growing backlog of local road repairs, which now stands at nearly £17 billion and could take more than a decade to fix,” says Hug.
“Councils already spend more than they receive from central government on tackling potholes and repairing our roads. However, it’s in everyone’s interests to ensure that public money is well spent.
“This includes the Government playing its full part by using the Spending Review to ensure that councils receive sufficient, long-term funding certainty, so they can focus their efforts on much more cost-effective, preventative measures rather than reactively fixing potholes, which is more expensive.”
