Simon Williams from the RAC welcomes the new government funding to fix potholes, but warns more money will be needed in future. Report by Etemadil. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00The government will certainly need to give more money in future years, but this is more
00:05money than we've seen for potholes and for roads generally. And this is the most complained
00:10about issue to the RAC. Every year we carry out research with drivers for the annual report
00:16on motoring, and this year 56% of drivers listed this as their top concern. One of the
00:23encouraging things about this funding settlement is that 25% of the funding is dependent on
00:29councils actually delivering. So those councils that do a good job and do the right form of
00:34maintenance, repair potholes permanently, and also carry out preventative maintenance
00:38will get further funding. So we think this is the right kind of move, hopefully a turning
00:44point in getting our roads brought back up to a fit-for-purpose state. Of course, more
00:50money will be needed, but this is a fantastic start. We need to see dangerous potholes filled,
00:57but importantly the message coming from government is that they want to see councils also carrying
01:03out more preventative maintenance than stop potholes appearing in the first place. Potholes
01:09cost an awful lot of money. Anything more than a puncture will cost around £500 to
01:15repair. And of course, potholes are a massive danger if you're on two wheels, a bike or
01:20a motorbike. Hitting a pothole could throw you off and lead to some horrendous injury
01:25or worse.