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 Issued
21st May 2002
State of the Roads
The Motorcycle Action Group welcomes the Annual Local
Authority Road Maintenance (ALARM) Survey published today.
The survey which sought the views of all local authorities
in England, Scotland and Wales highlights the compensation
paid out to road users for accidents or damage caused
by the state of the roads.
The Survey, conducted by the Asphalt Industry Alliance
(AIA), found a shortfall in road maintenance funding of
£1.2bn between what local authorities claimed they
needed to maintain roads adequately and what they actually
received. In all, 80 per cent of those responsible for
the maintenance of local authority roads believe that
there is a threat to road users’ safety due to maintenance
under-funding.
Almost one fifth (18 per cent) of the roads’ maintenance
budget of local authorities is spent on compensation with
£121million was paid out by Britain’s local
authorities last year.
Based on current budgets, local authorities can afford
to resurface roads only once every 84 years as opposed
to the 10-20 years which is recommended.
The need for structural maintenance on roads has doubled
in the past 10 years and the number of visual defects,
such as potholes and cracking, has increased by 89 per
cent over the same period, according to the survey.
MAG's Chief Executive, Henry Marks will be speaking at
the QE2 Conference centre in Westminster, London to emphasise
the safety threat that the funding shortfall causes for
motorcyclists from badly maintained road surfaces.
Jim Crick, Chairman of the AIA said, “The Government
claims it is investing more in our transport infrastructure
and in road maintenance, but something is going wrong
somewhere as the money is clearly not getting through
to those on the ground who need it.”
MAG will shortly be running a specific national campaign
to address the problems that manhole covers and service
access covers present to two-wheel vehicles. Anecdotal
evidence of the effects current unsurfaced manhole cover
design has on two-wheel vehicle users can be emailed to
manholecovercampaign@blueyonder.co.uk
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www.mag-uk.org
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