SIR – Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s pledge of a one-off £1.8bn cash boost for the NHS shows that he knows that come a General Election Brexit is not the only concern of
voters.
He would be well-advised to also address to deteriorating local road network.
Decades of under investment has resulted in a deteriorating local road network riddled with potholes.
The bill to restore the road network to a decent standard is
£9.79 billion because successive governments have failed to provide the funding levels required to carry out the necessary levels of road maintenance.
Continued cutbacks in local authority funding means that the
situation can only get worse.
With 35 million drivers in the UK, most with the ability to vote, the prime minister would be well advised to take note of that concern.
Of particular concern is that the billions of tax paid by drivers
does not seem to go towards funding a better road network.
Motorists pay £58 billion in taxation to the Exchequer – £26.9 billion in fuel duty, £25 billion VAT on fuel and £6.1 billion for other motoring taxes.
Against this just £2.06 billion is provided by central government as funding for local road maintenance.
Furthermore, as it is not ringfenced, the funding may not even be spent on road maintenance but on other council services as cash-strapped councils struggle to balance the books.
RSTA is calling for the investment of an additional 2p per litre taken from the existing fuel duty to fix the plague of potholes. This would provide an extra £1 billion to fix roads.
STEPHEN ELLIOTT
Constructive Dialogue
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