Shropshire Star comment: Extra cash to fix holes is welcome

It is an essential task that cuts the risk of death or serious injury to motorcyclists and cyclists, avoids causing expensive damage to cars and lorries and keeps businesses running smoothly.

And so the provision of central Government funding to pay for much-needed repairs is entirely just and welcome.

The cash is needed in an area such as Shropshire and Mid Wales, which not only faces the sort of heavy rain and snowfall that other areas face but additional problems caused by its rural nature. Roads in the countryside suffer from run-off water that cascades from farmers’ fields, causing gutters to overflow and tar surfaces to wash away.

We ought to be clear. Local roads are in a parlous state and it is not acceptable that motorists have to pay the price.

In the case of potholes it is difficult to make a case for transferring responsibility to local authorities: they are not to blame.

The age of austerity has whittled down the funds that they have available and so precious resources that might once have gone towards road programmes simply do not exist. It is for central Government to step up to the plate and provide cash where none is otherwise available.

Many motorists will be frustrated that roads suffer from the damaging effects of weather and heavy traffic volumes and that councils take a long time to fix problems.

And that is why the extra injection of cash is so important. Finally local councils are being equipped to carry out repairs and do what motorists need. The challenge for councils now is to spend the money wisely and fix roads that are a priority.

No doubt there is an extremely long list on engineers’ computers and they must work out which roads need to be fixed most quickly.

Our economy and our communities cannot function if our infrastructure is not maintained.

We need our authorities to invest where there are urgent priorities – and potholes and crumbling roads fall into that category.