‘The car is not the enemy’ – Top Gear star’s two point plan to fix Britain’s pothole pandemic
A TOP Gear star has shared his two-point plan to fix Britain’s pothole pandemic.
The state of the UK’s roads is estimated to be costing the nation’s economy a staggering £14 billion every year.
Damage to cars as a result of the craters has also hit an eight-year high as the road network reaches “breaking point”.
One rural route has sustained an unbelievable 174 potholes in just 200 yards of tarmac, while a hole found in Canning Town, East London, was large enough to swallow a child.
In a passionate rant on his Collecting Addicts podcast, Top Gear host Chris Harris set out the two steps he would take to address the crisis.
He said: “It just shows the dislocation of local government.
“Should it be a national issue? Of course it should.
“The idea that local boroughs should be responsible, those boundaries don’t make any sense.”
It’s a national disgrace
Chris Harris
First of all, he suggested the use of new pothole-repairing robots which can fill in the craters quickly and efficiently.
Machines like the ARRES PREVENT or JCB’s Pothole Pro use AI tech to identify and fix damage to the roads before they can even open up into dangerous fissures.
However, Chris claimed that local authorities don’t have the budget required to buy the gadgets.
As such, he urged the Government to allocate more funding to road maintenance with a view to having a fleet of the marvellous autonomous motors patrolling the roads.
Secondly, he added: “Local authorities have no money.
“We need to have a good old-fashioned campaign.
“I’m going to go and drive Pothole Pro…let’s go and fill in some potholes.
“The car is not the enemy, the van is not the enemy.
“It’s a national disgrace.”
He even suggested collaborating with motoring organisations like the AA to put pressure on ministers to resolve the issue as soon as possible.
A Department for Transport spokesperson said: “As part of our plan to improve local transport, the Government is investing in the biggest ever funding increase for local road improvements, made possible by £8.3bn of reallocated HS2 funding.
“This record funding increase is being provided to local councils as they are best able to understand which local roads need resurfacing in their area.
“However, to ensure that councils spend this record funding increase properly, the Government is requiring them to publish which roads they have resurfaced or are planning to resurface every three months, so taxpayers can see how their money is being spent.”
Meanwhile, a Local Government Association spokesperson said: “Councils know their areas best and understand their communities’ needs better than Whitehall, including which local roads to prioritise for repair or resurfacing.
“Central government already runs 4,500 miles of motorways, compared to 186,000 miles of local roads run by councils.
“Currently 31 times more per mile is spent by government on maintaining motorways and national trunk roads.
“Councils do what they can with the resources they have to tackle the £16.3 billion local roads repair backlog and against competing pressures from other services.
“Longer-term, five-yearly funding allocations for council highways departments, on a par with National Highways, will give councils more certainty to develop resurfacing programmes and other improvements to help prevent potholes in the first place.”
It comes after a major used car dealership chain used by over a million Brits was revealed to be on the brink of bankruptcy.