Rural Roads
Debate between Graham Stringer and Stuart Anderson(1 week, 5 days ago)
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Stuart Anderson
The hon. Member raises an important point—which I thought she might raise when I mentioned the local Lib Dem-run council in South Shropshire. For years, and under successive Governments, rural areas have not received the correct funding. That is not right; however, this is also about how the money is used. At the moment, the local council has an amber rating and is not fixing as many potholes as it should. At the moment, it is fixing only half the number done previously.
The other thing being raised with me that although potholes are being fixed, they come out and fix them on the Monday, and if there is a bit of rain on Tuesday and Wednesday, by Thursday the road is the same again. I have photos of people undertaking different measures to fix potholes that are completely unacceptable. Those roads are as bad at the end of the week as they were at the beginning.
We need to look at prevention. As a general rule, councils across the country are fixing more potholes than ever, but we are not seeing that in Shropshire, as per the local council’s numbers that I have quoted. Shropshire council continues to spend disproportionate amounts on reactive pothole repairs rather than on planned maintenance, because the Government have not given it the necessary long-term funding clarity. Evidence from the Road Emulsion Association shows that surface dressing extends life by around 10 to 15 years and uses 75% less bitumen and 80% less aggregate. It is campaigning for significantly increased investment in preventive road treatments and the maintenance of longer-term funding for councils. Every council will have to plan and will need clear visibility on the necessary funding.
As the Minister will know, developments in areas like artificial intelligence and autonomous robots could also start to future-proof how we deal with roads. I was delighted at the beginning of the year to see—as many others will have seen—the first autonomous vehicle able to identify cracks in the road and seal them early on, before they get worse. That is also reducing the number of lane closures, time invested and cost. As the RAC has stated—
Graham Stringer (in the Chair)
Order. The hon. Gentleman has secured a debate that has attracted a lot of attention—I have 16 Members who have put in to speak. The rules say that I must call the Front-Bench spokespeople at 5.10 pm. At the moment, that means that those who have put in to speak will have a minute, or fractionally over. The hon. Gentleman is entitled to carry on with his speech, but I ask him to bear that in mind.
Stuart Anderson
Thank you, Mr Stringer; you raise a brilliant point.
Before I conclude, I would like the Minister to address the support or approval that local councils need for community action to go ahead to help parish councils to fix certain areas, as they have in Devon.
Residents in South Shropshire deserve better than the roads they have at the moment. The reduced funding for South Shropshire, by removing the remoteness factor and the rural services delivery grant, is beyond what is acceptable. It is having a huge impact, and I am not going to sit by and watch my residents put up with this any more.
Several hon. Members rose—