Wheel repair firm claims £43m pledge 'won't go far' to fixing Cambridgeshire roads

With six days to go until the Budget, a wheel repair firm in Cambridgeshire claims improving the state of our roads is not being prioritised enough.

Cambridgeshire County Council has pledged to invest £43 million this and next year on highways, including repairing and preventing potholes.

In its own budget proposals made earlier this year, the council said the money would be used "to deliver improvements which both repair and prevent potholes, improved drainage, preventative work on the roads, footpaths and cycleways including soil affected roads."

Ian Fowler runs Rimtastic in March - some of his work includes repairing wheels damaged by potholes.

'So many roads could do with a resurface'

"There are too many priorities at the moment before roads are sufficiently repaired to make them of a better standard and reduce people's motoring costs through repairs," he said.

"I don't believe they'll (the Government) ever give the local authorities the sufficient budgets to repair them as fully as they need.

"So many roads locally could do with a complete resurface, and what they actually get is a patch on a patch to repair what potholes and damage is there."

Figures from the AA found pothole damage to vehicles has hit a five-year high, with repairs due to potholes costing the economy around £14.4 billion pounds a year.

In April, Cambridgeshire County Council said its £43m pledge was the "biggest investment in highways maintenance in over a decade".

A month earlier, the authority announced it would be spending £40m on improving various roads and footpaths across the county.

£43m 'won't go very far'

Ian isn't convinced that the current investment will go far towards repairing roads.

"I've heard of people that've hit a pothole, blow a tyre, split a wheel and ended up running off the road; if that happens and they're running into oncoming traffic causing an accident, what are the claims going to be like then?" he added.

"£43m won't go very far at all in maintaining our roads and getting them to a decent standard, so I reckon they're going to have to double that at least."

Labour, which is delivering its first Budget since taking office in July, promises to fix one million potholes every year.

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