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We're top of the pots
By Andrew Baxter and Nathan Prynn, Evening Standard Last updated at 12:32pm on 23.03.07
Menace: craters like this one in Tooting are especially dangerous for motorcyclists and cyclists
London is the pothole capital of Britain with almost 30 craters and cracks on every mile of its roads.
A report published today reveals how the daily pounding taken by London's roads has left them in a worse state of repair than those elsewhere in the country.
Outside London there are an estimated 589,000 holes on England's 171,442 miles of road - an average of three per mile.
The capital's 9,123 miles of roads have 258,000 potholes, equivalent to 28 per mile. Repairing them costs London's boroughs £19 million a year, more than a third of the national pothole bill.
The figures are revealed in the Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance Survey, which quizzed highways engineers about repairs and resurfacing. It found that:
• The number of defects has soared by up to 87 per cent in the past 10 years (68 per cent in the capital) and cost £56 million in the 2005/06 financial year - enough to pay for 500 miles to be resurfaced.
• Claims for compensation cost £50 million as motorists demanded reimbursement for repairs to vehicles damaged by potholes. The bill was £6.7 million in London.
Jim Crick, chairman of the Asphalt Industry Alliance, which conducted the survey with the County Surveyors' Society, said: "The survey reveals no light at the end of the tunnel for road maintenance departments. With a continuing shortfall of funds, the backlog of work can only worsen. Increased funding is the only solution to improving road network condition."
Councils say they spend up to 31 per cent of their roads budgets on repairs, but face a £1 billion shortfall on structural works including resurfacing.
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents called on the Government to spend more and said poor road surfaces pose a particular danger for motorcyclists and cyclists.
Head of road safety Kevin Clinton said: "The existence of so many potholes on our roads introduces a driving hazard that we could do without."
Cyclists in Haringey have accused the council of failing to meet its own targets for filling in hazardous holes. Of the 66 reported to the council since the start of last month only two have been fixed, claimed the cyclists campaign group CTC.
Haringey council said the real figure was lower, but admitted that bad weather and staff shortages meant not as many holes "as we would have wanted" have been repaired.
Reader views (5)
£6.7 millions' worth of compo for damage attributed to potholes? Will somebody let me in on the secret? Last time I trashed a pair of cycle wheels Camden flatly refused any help with their replacement.
- Martin H, London UK
As someone who cycles in London on a regular basis, I have to say that not only are potholes and the general condition of the roads attrocious but it's outright dangerous at times, if you hit a pothole and don't control it immediately then you'll go careering into the side of vehicle.
- Trevor Roll, London
London is going down the drain - I mean down the pothole.
- Abony, London
It's a disgrace. The whole infrastructure of this country has turned into rubbish over the last years. What do they do with all that tax money? They employ enough people, no?
- Georgie, London
The big problem is the absolutely awful, unprofessional and downright amatuer repairs that are being carried out. Holes are simply filled with low grade recycled tarmac, then rolled. Sadly, there is no attempt to provide a long-term repair - it is just bodge and run. Because the repair is so poor, within days, it is even worse than before - I smell a nice little scam by road repairers - get paid for fixing the same hole again and again and again - when was the last time you saw a complete road being stripped back and relaid properly, with top dressing, edge sealing and cats-eyes? I haven't for at least five years. Still, now that Gordon Brown has taxed the car off the road, the Highways Agency will have many millions of £'s available to fix the roads that we can't afford to drive on any more!
- Gary Parker, Amersham
