Philip Hammond told to fix Britain’s roads as Devon County Council uses 18th century methods to mend potholes

THE CHANCELLOR was last night urged to fix Britain’s “desperate” roads – as a county council resorts to 18th century practices to mend potholes.

Devon County Council is pleading with local volunteers to group together and fill-in damaging potholes in rural areas and small villages.

The AA said the move aped the ‘corvee’ system under Louis XIV in France where unpaid peasants were forced to repair public roads.

Devon’s ‘Community Road Wardens’ also do the weeding, cut grass and clean signs.

AA chief Edmund King said the revelation should shame the Government – at a time other councils are turning off street lights to save cash.

An AA survey shows more than a third of its members believe the state of Britain’s residential roads is poor - up from 23 per cent last year.

Mr King said: “Drivers pay almost four times as much in tax as is spent on the roads so the Chancellor must give local authorities more money to plug the potholes.

“Surely our taxes should be used for potholes rather than resorting to 18th century peasant practices.”

The Government collects nearly £30 billion a year in fuel duty.

It announced a new £250 million Pothole Action Fund in March –insisting it would fix four million potholes by 2020-2021.

But the Local Government Association claim it would take 14 YEARS to clear the backlog of work and fix all of England’s potholes – compared with 10.9 years in 2006.

The LGA wants the Chancellor to spend a further £1 billion on the problem.

Devon is widening out the ‘Dig It Yourself’ scheme after trials in five parishes. The wardens have to take their own personal injury insurance.

The scheme is backed by the Government which says it provides ‘value for the taxpayer’.