Public satisfaction with the condition of the UK's roads is at an all-time low, and as winter weather strikes, potholes are again rising up the agenda as a major cost for local authorities - both monetarily, and in terms of reputation. In the year 2013/14 the number of compensation claims received by English local authorities for damages due to poor road condition increased by nearly 20%, to an average of 540 claims per local authority. Despite £168m of central government funding having been earmarked for local authorities to help fix more than three million potholes by March 2015, there is still a huge shortfall of £587m in the annual road structural budget for local authorities. A recent Public Accounts Committee report identified that "unpredictable and fluctuating" central government funding for road maintenance has driven local authorities to develop a reactive stop-gap approach to maintenance, rather than focusing on preventative work, which is more cost effective in the long-term. Given the scale of cuts to local authority budgets, it is critical that councils consider how to minimise their risk exposure and cut the costs associated with pothole maintenance. Managing with less funding, councils need to be tougher in prioritising long-term demands over a short term 'worst-first' strategy. Applying asset management principles can help councils make decisions on which roads to maintain and their treatment based on need rather than on short term spikes in the size of the maintenance budget or concentrating activity in the winter months, which is inefficient and costly.
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