South East pothole repair bill is £2.5bn - report

The backlog of repairs to "pothole-plagued" roads in the south east of England is £2.5bn, a report has found.

Nearly half the region's road network - more than 13k miles - has less than 15 years' structural life remaining, according to the Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance (ALARM) survey, produced by the Asphalt Industry Alliance.

Kent County Council (KCC) highways chief has called for a law change on roadworks permits and "significantly more" maintenance funds.

A Department for Transport (DfT) spokesperson said: "For too long, this country has suffered from a pothole plague."

The ALARM survey also found roads were only resurfaced on average once every 188 years in the South East.

It said there was a "repeated pattern of short-term cash injections in an effort to stem the accelerating decline in road conditions, followed by longer periods of underfunding".

KCC councillor Neil Baker said: "What we need is significantly more funds for ongoing road maintenance, over multiple years, so we can plan ahead.

"Roads have been underfunded for decades. It will take much more than a quick fix if residents are able to drive on surfaces they want and deserve."

Fixing potholes raises a bigger issue, said Mr Baker, about the council's power over its own road closures.

There are 5,400 miles of road in Kent to manage, and there has been an increase of a "few thousand closures annually to 16,000 closures a year", said chair of the KCC environment and transport cabinet committee, Sean Holden.

But while KCC issues the temporary road closure permits, it has virtually no say in when, where or to whom they can be issued, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Mr Baker said nearly one in three of all permits issued were for "emergencies" which started immediately, with a minimum of two hours notice.

Much of the work is utilities and broadband providers associated with house building or infrastructure repair or maintenance.

Mr Baker said it was "impossible to co-ordinate" long-term maintenance projects and pothole patching.

The transport chief has called for the Highways Act to be amended to allow councils to deny permits that are applied for.

The DfT spokesperson added: "We're investing £1.6bn to help local authorities resurface local roads and fix the equivalent of up to seven million extra potholes over the next financial year.

"We want to achieve this in the most cost-efficient way for the taxpayer by providing local authorities with multi-year funding settlements, enabling them to better maintain their road networks and avoid potholes being formed in the first place."

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