Citroen Intervenes To Finance Damaged Road Repairs In England

Illustration of repairing potholes by Citroen. (Photo: Autocar)

JAKARTA Citroen took unusual steps by helping to bear the costs of repairing road holes in a number of UK areas. This was done after their internal research found a buildup of repair work that lasted for years.

Through a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to 424 local councils, Citroen found that one in every 20 roads in the UK required immediate repairs due to damage. A number of councils even reported that completion times could reach one to three years.

One example is the Shropshire Council, which estimates that it will take up to three years to complete a list of existing roadway repairs. As a follow-up to these findings, Citroen provided financial support to the Gateshead Council in the North East UK region.

The aid covered repair costs for one week, covering about 250 square meters of damaged road surface. Citroen UK Managing Director Greg Taylor, said the FOI results confirmed a prolonged problem with road infrastructure in the UK.

"Our FOI request is the latest research showing ongoing problems facing roads in the UK. There must be more effort so that road conditions do not worsen, and local councils need support so that they have facilities to provide suitable road infrastructure for their citizens," Greg Taylor said as quoted by Autocar, Thursday, November 20.

The research also found that a number of areas had a very large number of road holes. Derbyshire noted at least 13,327 reports of road holes that need to be repaired, while the Dumfries & Marijuway area had more than 16,819 holes.

Overall, more than 12,000 miles of roads are in the 'red' condition category, which means it requires immediate investigation and repair. The UK government has previously announced an additional 1.6 billion pounds of funds for local road maintenance.

However, the Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance (ALARM) report states that the completion of the total backlog takes around 16.8 billion and up to 12 years.

Citroen's move to be directly involved in repairing road infrastructure is in the spotlight because usually road maintenance is the responsibility of the local council.