Lib Dems ‘go fishing’ in Liverpool’s Annual Pothole Fishing Contest

Potholes across Liverpool City Region are costing taxpayers on average £136.2 Million each year.

As potholes and deteriorating road surfaces continue to plague the Liverpool City Region, the Liberal Democrat candidate for Mayor, Cllr Rob McAllister-Bell, is sounding the alarm on the urgent need for action after it was announced that over half will be undriveable in less than 15 years. 

He was joined in Speke by Liverpool Liberal Democrat Opposition Leader, Cllr Carl Cashman to ‘go fishing’. The Lib Dems tongue in cheek sporting activity is a jibe, aimed at the appalling state that our roads have been left in by Labour run Liverpool City Council and the Liverpool City Region Mayor, Steve Rotheram.

Data from AIA’s ALARM survey report 2024 has revealed that an alarming 52% of roads in the Liverpool City Region have less than 15 years of life remaining. This concerning statistic underscores the pressing need for investment and proactive maintenance to ensure safe and reliable road networks for all residents.

This comes just a few weeks after it was revealed by the Liverpool Echo that the Labour run administration had made a completely avoidable mistake in a  road tarmacing contract that has cost the taxpayers an additional £1.4 million.

The cost of the roads roads crisis is staggering. For each of the six local authorities within the Liverpool City Region, the average annual cost for road user compensation claims is a whopping £22.7 million. This not only places undue strain on the budgets of hard pressed local councils but also highlights the significant wider economic impact of poor road maintenance on residents and businesses alike.

Our local councils now face a daunting budget shortfall of £43.2m million to address the necessary maintenance and repairs to our roads. The Lib Dems have long campaigned on the state of the roads and raised this issue with the council many times.

Multiple Liverpool Liberal Democrat Councillors have cited numerous potholes that they have repeatedly time and time again asked to be filled in and repaired only for the City Council to do nothing. 

Cllr Rob McAllister Bell said, “The state of these roads is ridiculous, the potholes you could almost fish in them! So we did! We need support from the central government to address the £43.2 million backhole in our budgets. But we also need Labour run Liverpool City Council to do their job properly. We have countless complaints from residents about potholes needing to be refilled on a weekly or monthly basis and, just the other month, a resurfaced road in Speke needed to be redone because of a botched job.”

“We need leadership on this issue. Here in the City Region the University of Liverpool has been developing an innovative technological approach to tackling potholes, reducing costs of repairs and making our roads safer - where is it being trialed? Down south in Hertfordshire. We should be making the best use of the talent on our doorstep! The clock is counting down, we need to take action now.”

Notes

• AIA’s ALARM survey report 2024 can be found here www.asphaltuk.org/wp-content/uploads/ALARM-survey-report-2024-FINAL.pdf

• The data used was not specific to local authorities across the Liverpool City Region but taken using the average amount per local authority across England and where expressed regionally given as the average amount times by the 6 constituent local authorities. 

• Article - “World’s first AI pothole fixing robot deployed by UK government” www.joe.co.uk/news/worlds-first-ai-pothole-fixing-robot-deployed-by-uk-government-427513