National roads receiving 52 times more government funding than Suffolk County Council roads

It has been revealed that the Conservative Government's funding for local roads maintained by Suffolk County Council will be cut by £1.842m in the coming financial year.

Across the country, national roads - motorways and major trunk roads - will receive 52 times more government funding per mile by 2020, compared to local roads maintained by councils.

New analysis by the Local Government Association (LGA) reveals the Government plans to spend £1.1 million per mile to maintain its strategic road network between 2015 and 2020. In comparison, it will provide councils with just £21,000 per mile for the local roads they maintain over the same period.

This is despite an increase in the number of cars travelling on local roads, average speeds falling and local roads making up 98 per cent of the country's road network.
There are now 125 cars per mile on our roads compared to just 101 cars per mile in 2000. Councils say this is ratcheting up the pressure on local transport, causing congestion and road maintenance issues such as potholes, wear-down of road markings, and increasing general wear and tear.

Many people are now calling on the Government to deliver a radical new strategy to provide a fully-funded plan for the growing number of vehicles on the nation's roads. The LGA believes this should include reinvesting two pence per litre of existing fuel duty into local road maintenance, which would generate £1 billion a year for councils to spend on improving roads and filling potholes

At the 2017 County Suffolk Council elections the Liberal Democrats Manifesto included a promise to put £2m from the reserves stockpile to a "Pot Hole Pot" to fix our crumbling highways and pavements.