Whatever happened to Rishi Sunak’s great £2.5 billion Potholes Fund? In one of his first acts as Chancellor, in his 2020 Budget, he promised £500 million a year until 2025 to fix Britain’s pothole problem for good.
I presume the money has been spent, but for all the good it has done it might as well have been thrown into an even deeper hole than the nasty one on the corner outside my village which my car thumped into the other day. At this year’s Tory conference Mr Sunak announced a further £8 billion would be spent on fixing pesky potholes.
According to the RAC, its patrols had to go to the aid of 5,978 motorists between July and September this year – the highest number in any third quarter since the organisation started its pothole index in 2006. Those who found themselves stranded had suffered broken suspension springs, damaged shock absorbers and distorted wheels.
And we haven’t even got to winter yet – which is when the frosts really start tearing the roads to pieces. Will the extra £8 billion finally sort out the problem? I can’t say I have a great deal of confidence in councils – it’s not a great stretch to wonder if the money has been frittered away on pothole diversity officers, appointed to make sure every ethnic group and sexual orientation suffers equally from potholes. Perhaps, meanwhile, the tarmac crews who are supposed to be filling potholes are trying to work from home.
But the truth is that the battle against potholes is having to be fought against ever-heavier vehicles. This is partly down to the popularity of SUVs and the decision to allow heavier lorries on the road without doing much to make the roads fit for them. But another big part of it is electric cars, which are having to drag around huge, dense batteries wherever they go. Some electric SUVs are now pushing three tonnes. Even a tiny Renault Zoe weighs in at 1.6 tonnes. By contrast, a 1970s Cortina – a more than adequate family car of the day – weighed just over a tonne.
It is hardly surprising, then, that our roads can’t cope. Much of our motorway system was built with those Ford Cortinas in mind, as were many of our multi-storey car parks – structures which are now in danger of collapse without weight limits being imposed. As for many of our minor roads, they are little more than cart tracks with a thin layer of tarmac. Then comes along a three tonne brute driven by someone who thinks they are doing the planet a favour.
Damage to the roads, needless to say, doesn’t tend to get factored into the carbon footprint of electric vehicles. But there’s no hiding where the bitumen used to make and repair roads comes from – yes, out of oil wells. We have a road tax regime which is partly graduated on carbon emissions, but shouldn’t vehicle weights come into, too? It is heavier vehicles which cause the greatest damage, so why shouldn’t they be paying more towards the roads?
Owners of three tonne electric cars should be paying rates more in line with the annual road tax for lorries. After all, they are paying zero fuel tax and only five per cent VAT on electricity if they charge at home. It is about time the rest of us were relieved from having to subsidise these antisocial vehicles.
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November 10, 2023 at 09:58PM
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Are electric vehicles deepening our pothole crisis? - The Telegraph
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