Emma Reynolds, Labour MP for Wolverhampton North East and Shadow Housing Minister, is supporting the first ever National Pothole Day, 15 January 2014, by calling on the government to provide extra money to fix damaged roads in Wolverhampton.Potholes can damage vehicles and bicycles and can make roads unsafe. It is estimated that a third of local roads are in urgent need of attention, and statistics from the Department of Transport show that since 2010 an additional 2,262 miles of local roads require maintenance work – further than going from Land’s End to John O’Groats and back again.

The government cut the road maintenance budget by £1.2 billion in 2010, a decision which has been called “ludicrous” by Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee. Despite claims of record investment in local road maintenance from 2015, Labour’s research reveals that pothole funding will decline in real terms by 2020.

Emma is pressing the government to prioritise fixing roads and is supporting Wolverhampton City Council’s pioneering free app for phones, called Wolverhampton Report It, launched last year. This enables the public and council workers to report issues such as potholes, fly tipping or litter directly from the scene via a mobile phone or tablet. The reports then get sent straight to the council’s customer contact centre which assigns them for action.

Emma said, “People are rightly angry about the state of roads in the UK. Potholes cause congestion, risk road safety and cause misery for motorists, cyclists and all road users. Unlike the government, Wolverhampton City Council is taking the issue seriously and has launched an app, Wolverhampton Report It, which allows people to easily notify the council if they spot a pothole.

“However, the truth is councils are finding it harder to fix the holes because this Conservative led-government is cutting road maintenance budgets and funding is set to decrease further under the Conservatives’ plans. That means more misery for motorists.”

January 2015