37,000 kilometres of UK's roads in poor condition, study reveals. But what about Yorkshire?

READ: Bank highlights eight scams to watch out for in 201810 percent of the road network maintained by local authorities in Great Britain is in poor condition, or has been flagged for further inspection, a BBC Shared Data Unit study reveals.

About 37,000 kilometres (22,990 miles) across England, Wales and Scotland fell below top standard in surveys carried out on behalf of the Department for Transport.

Locally, the Yorkshire and Humber region has the joint highest percentage of minor B, C and unclassified roads that are deemed poor, along with the South West.

Some three percent of A-roads in England in 2016-17 were deemed to be in a poor condition, which works out at 883 kilometres of road, while around five percent of minor roads (B, C and unclassified) in England were in a poor condition. That works out at around 14,420km of road.

The study found that in general, the condition of England’s roads in local authority areas has been improving from 2009-10.

Six percent of the B, A and unclassified roads in Yorkshire and the Humber are deemed poor, while three percent of A roads have been consigned to the same fate.

Sheffield came in with 16.2 percent of its minor roads needing maintenance over the eight year period, the third highest in the country, while Kingston upon Hull came the seventh lowest with 2.6 percent.

Yorkshire and the Humber's total public spending on local roads came in at £2,200,007, while they also shelled out £1,855,991 on national roads in the five year period from 2012/13, a combined amount of £4,055,998.

Weather: Beast from the East part three? Experts say White Easter is possible in YorkshireGareth Howell, Executive Managing Director, AXA Insurance, said: “While we don’t have specific data relating to the condition of roads across the UK, from our experience it makes sense that roads in Scotland need more work as they tend to have colder and wetter weather, which damages the road surface. At the same time, even though there are more roads in need of work in Scotland compared to England, there are fewer drivers and less traffic compared to say, the South East of England, so we don’t see an increase in the proportion of claims in the area.

“In terms of money spent per head, considering that England is more densely populated than Scotland as well as the weather impact on Scotland’s roads, we can understand why there is more money spent per head in Scotland than other parts of the UK.”

A Department for Transport spokesperson said:“This Government is taking the big decisions for Britain’s future and investing a record £23 billion on our roads to improve journeys.

“We know that road surfaces are a concern for all road users and that is why we are providing local highway authorities in England with just under £6 billion to help improve the condition of our local highway networks.

Warning: Drivers face delays during M62 overnight closures“We are also providing authorities with a record £296 million through the pothole action fund, enough to fix just under 6 million potholes. This includes an additional £46 million, as announced in December 2017, to help them repair potholes that may have formed over the winter.”

The analysis by the BBC shared data unit comes as a separate investigation by the Asphalt Industry Alliance found more than 39,300 kilometres (24,400 miles) of road had been identified as needing essential maintenance in the next year.