National Motorcyclists Council (NMC) responds to the Parliamentary Accounts Committee’s Call For Evidence on the State of the Road Network

The NMC has forwarded written evidence to the Parliamentary Accounts Committee highlighting the dire condition of England’s road network and calling for an effective government strategy, supported by adequate funding, to urgently resolve the current situation.

NMC Chair and BMF Political and Technical Services Director, Anna Zee, said:

“ The current state of the UK’s road network is a disgrace, with many roads in an unacceptable and dangerous state through lack of sufficient investment over a number of years. The scourge of potholes, in particular, represents a real danger to motorcyclists and other vulnerable road users and needs to be fixed urgently through a comprehensive plan of action supported by ring-fenced funding.”

Craig Carey-Clinch, Executive Director of the National Motorcyclists Council added:

” The Government needs to urgently put in place a fully funded, preventative roads maintenance strategy and move away once and for all from the current approach of “temporary” repairs to road surfaces, with dangerous potholes often reappearing soon after repairs have been carried out.

The NMC is a leading member of the Pothole Partnership, formed in January 2024 as a strategic partnership between road user organisations and the road repairs industry. We have pressed Ministers to adopt our five-point plan of action, which recommends a comprehensive strategy for future road maintenance, including investment in new road repair technologies.

Initial meetings with new government ministers to discuss the problem of potholes and wider road safety issues have been positive but urgent action is needed now. In particular, we look to the Department of Transport to deliver on its new mantra to “move fast and fix things.”

You can read the NMC response to the Parliamentary Accounts Committee here and further details regarding the Pothole Partnership’s five-point plan here

More information about the National Motorcyclists Council and its members can be found here

Written by Paul Morgan CBE, BMF Government Relations Executive

Top image courtesy of Dan Senior – Unsplash