TRANSPORT: Roads continues to crumble

Britain's roads are continuing to deteriorate at an alarming rate, according to the National Road Maintenance Condition Survey, published by the Department of Transport yesterday. It showed that 150km of motorway, 950km of trunk roads and more than 4,600km of local authority streets needed immediate attention. A further 4400km of routes will require major work within four years.

Local authority roads and country lanes in Northumberland, Durham and Cleveland were found to be the worst in the country - clocking up 40 per cent more defects than the national average. The worst areas in the country for such "non-trunk roads" included London, East Midlands and the North West.

The study saw the worst ever results for roads in urban areas but did say that there had been some improvement on rural roads since 1995.