Potholes will get bigger as Boris Johnson slashes repair budget
The blight of potholes and cracked pavements is likely to get worse after Boris Johnson froze funding for local road maintenance.
The Mayor is reducing the money boroughs get for small-scale projects, including street repairs, by 22 per cent. Town halls will have to find savings elsewhere or let their roads — already damaged last winter — slip further into disrepair.
Several have warned that already dangerous streets and pavements will deteriorate even more this winter.
Chris Bond, environment spokesman at Enfield council, which is losing £800,000 of its £2.8 million funding, said: "It means we will have to find more money from our own stretched resources.
Otherwise there will be more potholes and cracked pavements making our streets unsafe for youngsters and older people especially. It's frankly scandalous."
Westminster and Camden are among the worst-affected inner London boroughs and have admitted their road maintenance budgets will have to be cut. The amount given to local authorities by Transport for London will fall from £169 million in 2009/10 to £132 million in 2013/14.
The TfL funding also covers road safety, walking and cycling, local street layout and congestion schemes. These are all likely to be hit.
Professor Stephen Glaister, a transport expert at Imperial College, said: "The road condition is very poor in many parts of London and the public hate the potholes, and I'm afraid it's not good news from that point of view."
Green Assembly member Darren Johnson added: "Local authorities are being squeezed by a combination of cuts imposed directly by central government and cuts passed on by the Mayor. Some of this pain could have been avoided if Boris had kept the estimated £55 million generated by the western extension of the congestion charge."
TfL confirmed funding for the Local Implementation Plans would be cut, and the budget for maintenance of, and investment in, main TfL routes would also be reduced.
It said it would seek to keep the roads in good repair through greater operational efficiency.
A TfL spokesman said: "The funding we provide to London's boroughs through the Local Implementation Plan process will be reduced in line with the General Grant TfL receives from central Government.
"Funding allocations for programmes such as road maintenance, bridge strengthening, Major Schemes and the borough discretionary fund have been safeguarded.
"But clearly there will be some areas funded through the LIPs where schemes will need to be prioritised and to support this TfL has provided greater flexibility and local accountability in the use of formula funding provided to London boroughs."
