New data has been released to help us find the best and worst roads in the country.
The UK’s roads are notoriously rough. We’ve all seen it. We’ve all lived it; bobbling our way along back roads and being caught out by unexpected, yet-to-be-filled potholes.
Thankfully, Lexham Insurance have done God’s work and sifted though the Department for Transport data to identify where we can find the best (and worst) maintained Tarmac in the country.
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Top of the pile is the North East. A whopping 96 per cent of the region’s B and C roads were considered not in need of improvement. Same goes for its motorways. And it also features the lowest number ‘amber’ and ‘red’ which are markers indicating that repairs are needed. Turns out it’s alright up north.
At the other end, there’s the East Midlands. A substantial 38 per cent of its A roads were labelled ‘amber’ or ‘red’. Forty-two per cent of its B and C roads suffer the same fate, which makes it the region in the UK that needs the most repairs to its roads.
Another report by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) suggested that road surfaces across the East of England are among the worst in the country. Its study suggested that major roads in Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, Essex and Bedfordshire were of ‘consistently lower’ quality than other parts of England.
The Government has relatively recently announced plans to inject £8.3 billion of funding to help tackle the problem across the country. Back in November, Transport Secretary Mark Harper suggested that the cash will allow over 5000 miles of road to be resurfaced. The only problem is his 11-year timeline – with cash being released to local authorities in £150 million chunks each financial year until 2034.
For now though, it looks like you’ll be in with the best chance of a smooth journey by heading up to the North East.
