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Rates Rise: Roads Deteriorate

18th April 1947, Page 25
18th April 1947
Page 25
Page 25, 18th April 1947 — Rates Rise: Roads Deteriorate
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

LESS than a year ago, Mr. Alfred Barnes, the Minister of Transport, announced the Government's 10-year plan of road con;truction. A few weeks ago he released the information that a Bill is being prepared under which the Government will take power to build roads exclusively for the use of fast-moving traffic. Against this impressive background of an apparently long-sighted policy, the current attitude of some local authorities towards road maintenance appears as a paradox.

During the recent bad weather, road surfaces have suffered severely and many major highways have become barely safe to carry the traffic that rattles down them. Statistics have already been published to show the serious damage done on icerutted roads to public service vehicles run by several important operators. The immediate effects are serious enough, but the long-term consequences are likely to be even more severe.

Vehicle Maintenance Upset Many of the goods and passenger vehicles now • in use are long past their prime and are kept in operation only by prodigious feats of maintenance. The additional attention which was necessitated by the climatic emergency has tended to throw out of gear delicately balanced maintenance systems, and day-to-day service operations have been postponed in favour of the more 'urgent repairs to damaged springs, radiators and other components.

Complaints by the public of the inadequacy of bus services would undoubtedly have been louder and more justified had road transport operators not strained every effort to keep old vehicles in a roadworthy condition. In addition, miracles of ingenuity and tenacity were performed by drivers and operators in combating snow, ice, fog and flood, but by the end of the bad-weather period the resources of road transport were strained to the limit.

If expenditure on the maintenance of essential highways be reduced, Britain's road transport system, upon which the security of the community depends in peace and war, may break down. Crises in our national affairs have become so frequent during the past two years that the public is in danger of accepting them as normal occurrences. The virtue of improvisation is being exaggerated, and the importance of long-term development obscured. It is likely that the 10-year plan will be delayed in its fulfilment by the reduction of grants to highway authorities for major works while roads are temporarily patched. Apart from the matter of finance, another limiting factor is said to be man-power.

Substantial increases in rates in many boroughs have played havoc with the financial budgets of middle-class families, who are receiving little benefit from the vicions rates that have been levied upon their property. The upkeep of the roads is one of the most important calls upon local finance. and to neglect it, whilst increasing rates, is illogical and indefensible.

Gambling With Lives Apart from the cost of transport, which is steadily rising because of higher rates of pay and better conditions for employees and the reduced working periods brought about by the five-day week, public safety is at stake. The farcical situation is created in which the publicly financed police force, on the one hand, is trying to educate road users to a better appreciation of the practices of safety, and publicly financed local authorities, on the other hand, are permitting, by neglect, road conditions which will nullify all the efforts of those who are endeavouring to reduce the loss of life on the highway.

The British Road Federation and others feel that the "ice age" revealed many weaknesses in the administration of British highways. The Federation has observed that a more comprehensive system for the gritting of roads at dangerous points, early in the morning, is necessary. It has been suggested that the help of local residents, who might undertake to grit a short section of road as a contribution to public safety, might be enlisted. There are other ways in which the effects of exceptional weather on the mobility of transport might be reduced, but these matters pale into insignificance by comparison with the need for keeping road surfaces in reasonable structural condition.

Tags

Organisations: British Road Federation
People: Alfred Barnes

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