Your article (‘In a rut’: cost of fixing pothole-plagued roads in England and Wales soars to £17bn, 18 March) mentions “heavy traffic” and “poor road construction” as some of the causes of the pothole proliferation, but it’s heaviness of vehicles, not volume of traffic, which is most to blame.
The road surface problem is rather more deep-seated than being an issue of poor treatment of potholes – though that adds to it. With vehicles getting heavier, as they are larger and increasingly loaded with batteries, any flaws in road surfaces are developing faster than they ever did before.
The damage done by a vehicle to a road surface is proportional to the fourth power of its axle weight. A two-tonne SUV therefore does 16 times more damage than a one-tonne car.
The potholing of road surfaces is even worse when it rains because heavier vehicles create much stronger hydraulic pressure, forcing water into any flaws and breaking up the road surface.
It’s time for road tax to be assessed on vehicle weight.
Cllr Richard Robertson
Labour, Cambridge city council
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