Wales is crumbling under a near £1 Billion bill to fix potholed roads.
A pothole has been filled once every six minutes, every day, for 10 years in Wales, but still the backlog of carriageway repairs has reached new heights and is now approaching £1 billion.
The figures, from this year’s Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance (ALARM) survey report, spell more misery for road users, with one in every six miles of the local road network – equivalent to 3,200 miles – reported to have less than five years’ structural life remaining.
Wales has 22 local authorities responsible for over 20,000 miles of roads. Meanwhile, roads are only resurfaced, on average, once every 108 years in Wales.
David Giles (above), Chair of the Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA), which commissions the ALARM survey, said, “More than £900 million has been spent on carriageway maintenance in Wales over the last decade.
“However, due partly to the short-term nature of the allocation of funding, this has resulted in no quantifiable uplift in the condition and resilience of the network.
“In fact all Welsh authority highway teams reported that, in their opinion, there has been no improvement to their local network over the last year: a view no doubt shared by the majority of road users.”
The ALARM survey reports local road funding and conditions in England and Wales based on information provided directly by those responsible for the maintenance of the network.
This year’s survey is the 30th. Over the past three decades ALARM has reported a repeated pattern of short-term cash injections in an effort to stem the accelerating decline in road conditions, followed by longer periods of cuts and underfunding.
“There needs to be a complete change in mindset away from short-term to longer term funding commitments,” added David Giles.
“Welsh authorities do their best with the resources available. Nevertheless, they have told us they need their budgets to more than double for the next five to 10 years if they are going to be able to address the backlog of repairs.
“That is why we are calling for a minimum five-year funding horizon and a substantial, sustained increase in investment with budgets ring-fenced specifically for local roads maintenance.
“Investing in local roads would allow Welsh authorities to plan and provide better value for money for taxpayers and deliver a more resilient network.”
RAC Head of Policy, Simon Williams, added, “Once again, these figures paint a bleak picture of the state of the nation’s roads and confirm what a majority of drivers have known for a long time – that in far too many parts of the country, road surfaces are simply not fit-for-purpose.
“The lack of investment in our roads is a false economy as it just leads to bigger repair costs in the future – something local authorities can ill-afford. In the meantime, all road users continue to pay the price with uncomfortable journeys, avoidable breakdowns and repair bills that they only incur because potholes are so bad.”
The findings of ALARM 2025, which relate to the 2024/25 financial year, also show that in Wales:
- Local authorities would have needed an extra £90 million last year to maintain their network to their own target conditions and prevent further deterioration.
- £954 million is now reported to be required, as a one-off, for local authorities to bring the network up to their ‘ideal’ conditions.
- 46% of the network has less than 15 years’ structural life remaining – more than 9,200 miles.
- 99,836 potholes have been filled at a cost of £7.2 million.
IAM RoadSmart Director of Policy and Standards Nicholas Lyes added, “The AIA’s report lays bare the inadequate repairs happening on our local roads, where despite spending billions on filling potholes, the backlog costs are increasing.
“Potholes are an expensive headache for drivers but for those on two wheels they pose a serious road safety hazard. Moreover, if drivers are swerving to avoid them, they are risking a collision.
“While filling a pothole provides temporary respite and a brief improvement in the safety of the road surface, it is essentially a sticking plaster because the section will crumble away under the weight of traffic and from the effects of a cold winter.
“We need to start properly resurfacing our roads to ensure we’re not throwing good money at bad roads, but most importantly to ensure smooth and safe journeys.”
