Poor state of roads upsets 62pc of drivers

A survey by the Institution of Civil Engineers (Ice) found that only 32 per cent of people polled were content with the condition of the roads compared to a figure of 62 per cent when the surveys started in December 2008.

The latest figure is also well down on the 50 per cent satisfaction figure in a 2010 survey.

Ice vice president Geoff French said: “The (Government’s) extra £200m recently made available to help with road repairs is very welcome, though unfortunately this doesn’t equate to much when spread across a large number of authorities and won’t make much of a dent in the huge annual budget deficit.”

Sheffield City Council’s head of Street Scene Nick Hetherington said: “The severe winter has caused significant damage to the road network which has resulted in large numbers of potholes forming. Since December 2010 over 60,000 potholes have been repaired and funding for this work has come from the existing £2.5m patching budget.

“More permanent repairs such as larger patching and some resurfacing work will be carried out on the worst affected roads during spring and summer 2011. This work will be funded from existing budgets and an additional £1.4m from the Government to help deal with the damage caused by the extreme weather.”

Leeds City Council said: “Leeds has made substantial investment to the roads around the city, and the number of potholes that have appeared this year is almost 10 per cent below the national average figure.

“Leeds has been fortunate to have made a considerable additional investment of around £72m in highway maintenance since 2003, but with around 3,000km of roads in the district there still remains a lot of work to do. We worked hard to repair the roads before the severe weather hit, and feel this has helped us to somewhat limit the number of potholes this year.”