The UK’s leading motoring group has called for Chancellor Alistair Darling to use the extra money from next month’s fuel duty increase to fix all of the country’s potholes.
The harshest winter in decades has left road agencies and councils with an estimated £10billion bill to repair Britain’s crumbling road network.
The UK Government is expected to increase fuel duty by 2.5p on April 1, and last night the AA urged the Treasury to use the extra money to give local authorities emergency funding.
The organisation believes enough money would be raised within 100 days to fix the problem.
AA President Edmund King said: “Roads are in a dreadful, dangerous state and emergency funding is desperately needed to stop the plague of potholes.
“However, with the motorist already paying £46billion a year in various motoring taxes and only a small proportion spent on the roads, it would be highway robbery to demand more money from local people.
“The government intends to increase fuel duty on April 1 by about 2.5p per litre. If this fuel windfall was diverted into pothole repairs then all of the UK's potholes could be funded and filled in 100 days.”
He added: “The roads need more than patching – many stretches need to be ripped up completely.”
While all money raised through fuel duty goes to Westminster, council budgets north of the border, including funds for road repairs, are dictated by the Scottish Government. Mr King would like to see one-off grants for all councils, including Scottish local authorities, to be paid out by Mr Darling.
Aberdeen councillor Kate Dean, convener of the city’s enterprise, planning and infrastructure committee, has backed the call.
She said: “The government has made quite a lot of money out of fuel duty because of high prices at the pumps.
“I would welcome any move to ring-fence some of that money to repair the country’s roads.”
“I think this winter is the worst in my lifetime and the damage that has been left behind is considerable. We (councils) need extra help.”
Petrol and diesel prices rose by 1.3p in the past week, and the price of a litre of petrol is now 23.6p higher than it was last year.
The SNP’s transport spokesman at Westminster, Western Isles MP Angus MacNeil, is against raising fuel duty at all.
“Pushing up fuel prices is absolutely the wrong thing to do when the economy is so fragile and a further hike will hinder recovery,” he said.
“At a time when the UK Government should be looking at ways of stimulating growth, the Treasury is intent on pushing up the price of fuel.
“This is clearly going to be a key issue in the Westminster election campaign and the SNP will be arguing for an end to Labour's arbitrary fuel tax increases.”
The Treasury made no comment last night.
Research released yesterday revealed insurers paid out £2.85million in claims last month to people whose cars were damaged by potholes.
AA Insurance said about 1,900 pothole claims were made by motorists during February, after roads were damaged by one of the most severe winters on record.
The group added pothole claims had soared by about 600% during the past three years, as councils struggled to maintain the road network.
Simon Douglas, director of AA Insurance, said: “But that’s just the tip of the iceberg, because it takes serious damage to make it worth an insurance claim.
“Garages and tyre centres are dealing with countless thousands of punctured tyres, damaged tracking or broken springs which don’t justify making a claim.”