Zep
Moderator
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- 9,302
The issue as I understand it is how the contracts for road maintenance are procured (as usual).
Local councils, instead of running their own road maintenance departments have looked to outsource. So they package it up and put it out to tender. The contractors price to do the maintenance of a fixed cost basis, including the survey of failing roads, and their profits are then based on how well they can sweat the asset.
The result, for local roads, is a short term approach with surveyors incentivised to only go for patch repairs when they can’t find a technical reason to not do it at all and resurfacing is only carried out when it is cheaper than multiple patch repairs. Then there is the quality of the materials and workmanship to consider.
It’s a pretty sad state of affairs, but is unlikely to change while central government trouser the road fund licence receipts and give out a fraction to local governments to pay for repairs. They then cap council tax rises that might make up the shortfall.
It’s a broken system, run by people with vested interests to keep it broken, and no real alternatives, politically speaking.
Local councils, instead of running their own road maintenance departments have looked to outsource. So they package it up and put it out to tender. The contractors price to do the maintenance of a fixed cost basis, including the survey of failing roads, and their profits are then based on how well they can sweat the asset.
The result, for local roads, is a short term approach with surveyors incentivised to only go for patch repairs when they can’t find a technical reason to not do it at all and resurfacing is only carried out when it is cheaper than multiple patch repairs. Then there is the quality of the materials and workmanship to consider.
It’s a pretty sad state of affairs, but is unlikely to change while central government trouser the road fund licence receipts and give out a fraction to local governments to pay for repairs. They then cap council tax rises that might make up the shortfall.
It’s a broken system, run by people with vested interests to keep it broken, and no real alternatives, politically speaking.