Government Must Fund Repairs to Cambridgeshire’s Soil-Affected Roads

Across Cambridgeshire and the Fens, roads built on peat-based soil are failing almost as fast as they can be fixed. Around 40% of the county’s road network sits on soil that expands and contracts with heat, cold, water and ice, causing cracking, subsidence and dangerous potholes.

These soil-affected roads fail roughly twice as fast and cost between twice and four times as much to maintain as roads built on stable ground. Repeated pothole patching is not a solution — it is a false economy that wastes public money while leaving residents, businesses and emergency services dealing with unsafe conditions.

This problem is not confined to minor rural lanes. Some of the worst-affected roads are major A and B routes, relied on daily by commuters, agricultural traffic, HGVs and blue-light services. In areas with poor public transport, these roads are essential to daily life and the local economy.

Now under Liberal Democrat leadership, Cambridgeshire County Council is taking action. It has identified the most severely affected roads and is trialling long-term solutions, including full reconstruction using modern techniques to stabilise the ground.

But rebuilding soil-affected roads properly is expensive and cannot be funded from already stretched local highways budgets.

The cost of bringing every soil-affected road across Cambridgeshire back up to a good standard is estimated at £500m, which would be comparable to the ‘Black Cat’ roundabout scheme on the A428.

This is a national infrastructure problem, and it requires national funding.