Government proposals of £7million funding for new bike-friendly areas fail to address a fundamental issue of cycling road safety: potholes and deteriorating road surfaces reports the Road Surface Treatments Association (RSTA).

“The government’s own figures state that 100 cyclists a year are killed or seriously injured due to accidents caused by poor or defective road surfaces. This is the issue that needs to be addressed”, said Howard Robinson, RSTA chief executive.

Under the proposals the government will provide £6.5 million funding for a range of projects to improve road safety and help create more bike-friendly areas in 8 cities including Bristol, Leeds, Cambridge, Birmingham, Norwich, Manchester, Newcastle and Oxford. In addition, it will also provide £0.5 million to support the Cycling UK Big Bike initiative to get more people cycling safely.

“Cyclists are amongst our more vulnerable road users. For them, the continued deterioration of local road surfaces can result in death or serious, life-changing injuries”, said Robinson. “Initiatives to get more people cycling are to be welcomed but the government needs to invest in the provision of a well-maintained road network that is safe to for them to use.”

Robinson points to the latest Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance (ALARM) survey that found to restore the local road network to a satisfactory condition would cost over £12.06 billion and it would take 13 years to address the backlog of potholes. Produced by the Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA) the survey found that such is the rate of deterioration a sixth of local roads could be unusable within five years.

“Before making headline grabbing announcements the government should provide real levels of investment in road maintenance to ensure that cyclists have a safe road surface to cycle on”, said Robinson.