The Road Surface Treatments Association (RSTA) has set-up a parliamentary petition urging the government to invest an additional 2p per litre of the existing fuel duty to fix the plague of potholes afflicting the local road network.
The petition may be found at https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/183637
Decades of under investment in local road maintenance has resulted in a pothole bill of £12 billion. Despite this, lack of funding means that highway authorities are having to reduce their road maintenance budgets. Investing just 2p per litre of the existing fuel duty would provide an extra £1 billion per year to address this.
“A further £1 billion annual investment would certainly help local authorities tackle the damage done by under-investment by successive governments,” argued Howard Robinson, RSTA chief executive. “We urge all drivers to sign the petition so that Parliament will have to debate the issue of our potholed, deteriorating roads.” 100,000 signatures are required before the petition can be considered by Parliament.