Motorcyclists are being invited to take part in the Great MAG Road Maintenance Treasure Hunt. Riders will be seeking out the best performing authorities making the most positive impact to UK roads.
Publication of the Asphalt Industry Alliance’s 2024 ALARM Report has shown that the road infrastructure is continuing to decline. The amount needed to fix the backlog of carriageway repairs is now at a record high of £16.3 billion.
The Government will deliver £8.3 billion of additional funding over 11 years. The Transport Secretary said this is enough to resurface 5,000 miles of local roads. In other words, that is just 2.5% of the network. For riders hoping to see better quality roads it is going to be something of a treasure hunt.
Rick Green, Chair of the Asphalt Industry Alliance, said:
“We need to reach the point where local authority highway engineers are able to plan and proactively carry out maintenance work in the most timely and efficient way to the greatest benefit of all road users – rather than just having enough money to address immediate and urgent repairs.”
MAG’s Resurface Our Roads campaign lead, David Craik, commented:
”MAG represents motorcyclists, one of the groups of road users defined by Government as being vulnerable and requiring extra care to be taken to prevent injury. The risks posed to motorcyclists by poorly maintained road surfaces is very real, and one of the most cited safety concerns of the riding community. Whilst MAG applauds the strenuous effort by industry to fill 40% more potholes in 2023 than in previous years, it is clear that potholes are the outcome of inefficient maintenance caused by reduced maintenance funding. This observation is confirmed, also in 2023, by the 16% increase in maintenance backlog to £16.3bn. MAG welcomes the £8.3bn diverted to roads from HS2 but notes that, without ongoing ring fencing of maintenance funding, Government will continue to fail to meet the needs of its vulnerable road users.”
The Government’s £8.3 billion comes with strings. The announcement of the funding said that local authorities must publish information on their websites on a regular basis. This should explain how they are spending the funding in their area. MAG will watch to see if this transparency commitment is met. More importantly, MAG is asking riders to flag up if they have actually experienced any improvement.
MAG will ask councils for any secrets they have for delivering a bigger maintenance bang for their limited buck and continue to celebrate best practice wherever it can find it.
MAG’s Director of Campaigns and Political Engagement, Colin Brown, said:
“It is a well-worn path to point out the problem. I cannot imagine that anyone in the country is not fully aware of the issue. With our Treasure Hunt, we hope to find heroes with a ‘can-do’ attitude that deserve to be emulated. Given the shortfall in funding, it may be a bit of a needle in a haystack exercise. It will be interesting to see what, if anything, the riding community can feed back to us.”
Notes for Editors
The 2024 ALARM report can be found on the Asphalt Industry Alliance website here: https://www.asphaltuk.org/alarm-survey-page/
MAG’s Resurface Our Roads campaign page can be found here: https://mag-uk.org/resurface-our-roads/
The Government’s £8.3 billion funding announcement can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/8-billion-boost-to-repair-roads-and-back-drivers