State of local road network still declining, says ICE

London, August 28 -- A survey published today by the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) reveals that the condition of 75% of Britain's local roads, footpaths and cycleways - on which more than three quarters of all journeys are made - has deteriorated over the past year. Local authority transport experts' approval of political management of national transport issues is at an all time low.

ICE's 2003 'Local Transport Survey', compiled from research amongst local authorities in Great Britain with statutory responsibility for roads and pathways, suggests that the road maintenance backlog has increased by approximately 12 per cent from an estimated £7.4 billion in 2002, to £8.3 billion in 2003, equivalent to £150 for every man, woman and child in the country. However, no single, commonly accepted method of assessing the precise state of the nation's roads exists, making detailed benchmarking unacceptably difficult.

The poor state of our local highways network is being exacerbated by evidence that local authorities are not spending their full budget allocation on maintaining the network because of increasing demands for expenditure in other sectors.

John Sanders, Chairman of the ICE Municipal Engineering Board says: "At present, it is up to each local authority to decide how much of their allocated highways maintenance budget they spend accordingly. In some instances, little more than half is currently used to address the deterioration.

"Road planners are frustrated by the 'patch and mend', short-term sticking plaster mentality that provides temporary alleviation of symptoms rather than long-term cure".

The Government's 10-year Transport Plan, published in 2000, included the commitment to halt the deterioration in local roads by 2004, and eliminate the maintenance backlog by 2010. Yet the ICE survey has shown an increase in the maintenance backlog virtually every year since it started in 1996. When asked to rate the commitment and quality of leadership in transport policy from UK Government, 79% of respondents said either 'very disappointing' or 'disappointing', whilst two thirds (67%) believed that the current system for funding highways maintenance was 'very poor'.

John Sanders continues: "We understand that local authorities have many other pressing demands on their budgets. However, road maintenance can only be ignored for so long before carriageways, footways, bridges and street lighting deteriorate beyond repair. Do we want to sit back and watch our local roads disintegrate into a network of potholed cart tracks? Are we happy to have streets in a state of constant disrepair?"

ICE wants to see the Government's commitment to eliminating the structural and environmental maintenance backlog backed up by action rather than more plans and promises. "We want to see both revenue and capital funding for transport ring-fenced and allocated amounts guaranteed beyond elections, be they local or general," Sanders concluded.

ICE also supports measures to introduce a consistent methodology to measure road quality and calculate the budget required to bring the road network to an acceptable level. The ICE will press Government to ensure that such a broad indicator is adopted as soon as possible to ensure realistic targets for improvement can be set and met.

Other findings of the 2003 survey include:

- An overwhelming majority of the respondents believe that London Congestion Charging has been a success and expect it to be introduced in other cities.

- There is a severe shortage of sufficiently experienced and qualified staff to implement the Government's transport programme.

- The trend of increasing liability claims continues, although there are signs that the rate of increase is slowing down.

- Over two thirds of respondents are against the Government's intention to create a statutory duty to remove ice in England and Wales; 70% do not currently treat footways.

The survey findings supports ICE's calls to appoint an independent Chief Engineering Adviser to ensure a co-ordinated, long-term, sustainable approach to infrastructure planning, rather than decision-making being dominated by political short-termism. ICE believes that the position should be similar in remit to the Government's Chief Medical Officer or Chief Scientific Adviser.

Notes to Editors

In its eighth year, ICE's Local Transport and Public Realm Survey reflects the views of local authorities in Great Britain with statutory responsibilities in this area. These authorities are responsible for 96 per cent of the 370,000 kilometres of road in Great Britain (England, Scotland, Wales) and the huge majority of the public open space in our towns, cities and villages.

In 2003, questionnaires were sent to all 203 local highway authorities in Great Britain and responses were received from 55 (27%) of them, collectively accounting for over 30 per cent of the population of Great Britain.

Individual responses to the survey are confidential. The Institution of Civil Engineers is grateful to the efforts that staff in local authorities have made in responding to the survey.

The full report is available via the ICE website, http://www.ice.org.uk/.

The Institution of Civil Engineers is the pre-eminent civil engineering institution in the world. Established as a learned society in 1818, it has almost 80,000 members worldwide and provides a voice for civil engineering, continuing professional development and promoting best practice throughout the industry. Further details from http://www.ice.org.uk/.

Charles Thompson, ICE Media Manager, Tel +44 (0)20 7665 2104 / +44 (0)7715 484706, E charles.thompson@ice.org.uk;

Fionnuala Fadian, Kinross & Render, Tel +44 (0)20 7592 3108, E ff@kinrossrender.com