Warning of ‘road to ruin’ as funds dry up

Hull Council has revealed 26 per cent of A-roads are in danger of structural failure, while a similar numbers of B and C roads are in the same condition and more than 50 miles of unclassified roads and nearly a third of footpaths are in need of major repairs. But the gloomy economic outlook and constraints on public spending mean there is little likelihood the situation will improve in the short term - and if anything it looks set to get worse.

A report for the council’s Cabinet has stated “urgent” action is needed and warns that without extra investment, roads will deteriorate further leading more complaints, insurance claims - and a “declining image” for the city.

According to the national Highways and Public Transport public satisfaction survey, just over a quarter - 26 per cent - are satisfied with the state of the city’s roads, down from 38 per cent in 2009.

The cost of putting the city’s roads back “as new” is put at an eye-watering £73m - with an extra £54m needed for pavements and paths. Many concrete roads were built before 1939 and are approaching the end of their life and two bad winters, as well as lack of maintenance have taken their toll. It is estimated it would cost £8.6m a year to arrest the decline in the city’s roads - but in this financial year only £2.1m is being spent on carriageway maintenance.

The council’s portfolio holder for highways, Coun Martin Mancey, said crumbling roads with a patchwork of pothole repairs created a negative image, and added: “It has implications for business, tourism as well as road safety. If you get off a ferry coming in from Europe and you are driving over something that resembles a ploughed field, it doesn’t inspire confidence. The report is on the agenda to acknowledge that there is a major problem and that it is the result of long-term underfunding, and to acknowledge that in the current financial situation we are not going to stop the decline. There is no way in the world the council could fund a carriageway programme of £8.6m a year.”

He added: “Over the years the Government has placed more and more responsibilities for the provision of services on local government. I totally disagree with the suggestion that there is a lot of fat in local government that could be trimmed out to find the £8m needed for the highways programme.”

A partial solution could come from using funds earmarked for integrated transport schemes such as cycling and pedestrian crossings for roads maintenance. But that came with its own dangers.

He said: “It is an unenviable choice to make - would you rather the risk of having an unsafe pedestrian crossing or potholes that a motorcyclist or a cyclist could run into and break their neck?”

Paul Watters, the AA’s head of roads policy, sympathised with the council’s plight and agreed the outlook was “very pessimistic”, to the point where road casualty figures could start rising because routes were in such poor condition. The Isle of Wight has recently agreed a private finance deal with a contractor to run and maintain the island’s roads, but he added: “It is a thing local authorities wouldn’t enter into lightly and the Government wouldn’t like them ramping up debt.”

He said: “Traditional methods of funding are drying up. I sympathise with the council. We are definitely going to see more cuts in the comprehensive spending review which comes out next year and local authority grant allocations are ever downwards. Our concern is that it isn’t going to get any better. In our members polls road maintenance often pips the cost of motoring as the number one worry. It is a very pessimistic outlook and it won’t be long before we start to see road casualty numbers reflecting the poor conditions of our roads.”