Motorists should brace themselves for a surge in potholes triggered by increasing numbers of heavy lorries travelling on the UK’s road network, the Local Government Association (LGA) has warned.

 

Latest statistics from the Department for Transport reveal that the amount of goods transported by lorries each year rose to 1.69Bn tonnes in the 12 months ending June 2016 – up 5% from the previous year.

 

This prompted concern from the LGA. The group’s transport spokesman Martin Tett said: “Our local roads network faces an unprecedented funding crisis and the latest spike in lorries could push our local roads network over the edge.

 

“Lorries exert massively more weight on road surfaces than cars, causing them to crumble far quicker.”

 

But road haulage groups have hit back at the claims. “Larger lorries do not cause increased damage to the road surface – in fact, they have more axles which spread payloads more evenly,” said the association’s head of policy Christopher Snelling.

 

He accused the LGA of attempting to hand over responsibility “for an issue which sits in their remit”. “The real issue is the need for increased funding from central Government to address the potholes problem nationwide,” he added.

 

Road Haulage Association chief executive Richard Burnett said: “Road hauliers move 85% of the UK economy, delivering food, clothing, houses and jobs. The roads are their main place of work and the industry is doing its job. We expect infrastructure providers, working with central government, to get their act together and do theirs.”

 

The LGA has also called for greater support from Government and proposed that a further £1Bn a year could be injected into road maintenance by earmarking 2p per litre of existing fuel duty.

 

“It is wrong and unfair that the Government allocates almost 40 times more to maintaining national roads, which it controls, compared with local roads, which are overseen by councils. It is paramount this funding discrepancy is swiftly plugged,” added Martin Tett.

 

A Department for Transport spokesman commented: “It is vital councils keep our roads in a good condition to deliver better journeys for drivers.

 

“We are giving councils in England a record £6Bn over the next five years to fix roads in their area, and on top of this we recently announced an additional £925M for repairs and upgrades. In addition, we have a £250M fund specifically to tackle the blight of potholes.”

♦ Drivers could be spared costly car repairs caused by potholes if a research project aimed at warning those behind the wheel when there are road defects ahead proves successful.

 

The initiative by car manufacturer Ford aims to create a real time ‘virtual pothole map’ – accessible via the dashboard – which would ‘crowd source’ data on road surface conditions from sensor equipped vehicles travelling on the network. The company hopes to start testing the system later in the year.

 

(Photo: David Dixon and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence)