RAC head of policy Simon Williams said: “The findings from this
report send the clearest signal yet to the Government of the
critical state of so many of the roads used by millions
every day.
“By the Government’s own admission, the extra £8.3bn from the
cancelled parts of HS2 is only sufficient to
resurface around 5,000 miles of road, which is sadly
just 3% of all council-managed roads in England. With this report
showing an estimated 107,000 miles of roads are fast
reaching the end of their lives, the scale of the problem
now facing councils is truly gargantuan. The fact government
data shows road maintenance is actually declining at a time
when the precise opposite is needed, is even further
evidence that councils don’t have the funding they need to
look after these most important assets.
“The status quo is not sustainable. The longer the Government
fails to grasp this reality, the bigger the eventual cost to the
public purse. Only a commitment to introducing ring-fenced roads
funding for councils will get them out of this dire
mess. Without it, our roads will only get worse.”
To help highways authorities understand where the problems on
their networks are, the RAC has partnered with technology company
Metricell which has developed a free mobile app that uses AI
to automatically identify road defects via smartphone cameras.
After downloading Stantheapp, all users
have to do is mount their phone safely in a cradle and set it to
film the roads as they drive. The results are fed into a national
map on the RAC and Stan websites showing the health status of the
UK’s roads as either red, amber, or green. The app can also be
used to submit photos of potholes and other surface defects.
