Government scraps 'unaffordable' A27 Arundel bypass - RAC comment

Reacting to the Chancellor of the Exchequer's spending assessment, RAC head of policy Simon Williams said: “These budget cuts have created more questions than answers about exactly when we’ll start to see the Government improve the condition of Britain’s broken roads.

“The cancellation of the A27 Arundel bypass, from which Labour promised to allocate £320m for pothole repairs in its election manifesto, simply doesn’t scratch the surface of the problem. We’re still waiting to hear whether a much larger sum, to the tune of £8.3bn from the cancelled northern leg of HS2, will be spent on local road maintenance over the next 11 years as promised by the previous Government. It’s this long-term certainty of funding that local authorities so desperately need to plan long-term maintenance programmes, resurface their worst roads, and carry out preventative treatment that stops potholes forming in the first place.

“Following last week’s news from the National Audit Office that the extent of the pothole problem isn’t truly understood by Government, now is the time for change. The new Transport Secretary has a real opportunity to deliver lasting improvements to the quality of the nation’s roads.”