Three million holes in roads

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While roads suffer from around one million potholes, there are a further 2.5 million road openings made during streetworks by utility companies, a report by the Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA) found.

The Alliance's report also said there was a shortfall of more than £1 billion in highway maintenance budgets and an 11-year backlog of maintenance work.

Some roads faced a 65-year wait for resurfacing, while local authorities estimated they were receiving only half the budget they needed to keep their roads in reasonable condition.

The AIA report showed there were an average of 4,268 potholes per local authority in north west England in 2006/07. This includes Blackburn, famous for the line in the 1967 Beatles song A Day in the Life which talked of "4,000 holes in Blackburn, Lancashire".

The report said that £53 million was paid out in compensation claims for damage to vehicles or road traffic accidents due to road structural conditions across England and Wales in 2006/07.

AIA chairman Jim Crick said: "Roads are a vital asset and our most valuable one. We all depend on them every day and it's time the under-funding of their maintenance was addressed. There are so many demands on highways maintenance budgets now that it is almost impossible to keep pace with them.

"Trenches dug by utility and service companies are a necessary evil but reduce longer-term road life by around 30%.

"Our figures concentrate the mind on why regulations now available through the Traffic Management Act, to co-ordinate and control such openings (of the road surface) should be strictly enforced."

A Department for Transport spokesman said: "We want local authorities to implement a system of regular, well-managed maintenance - not to leave things until they deteriorate to the point that repairs become urgent and more costly."