The Times in particular has been focusing on the poor quality of the roads across the country recently and suggesting one off injections of capital for potholes. I think that actually shows you worst practice in terms of actually fixing the problem.
The trouble is, it rather suits people politically for either a Council or Central government to announce a series of one off cash injections rather than sort out an ongoing problem. It is a matter of grabbing the immediate headline rather than solving an intractable problem. It is better to have a longer term plan for two reasons:
The first is that an ongoing maintenance can be preventative. You can treat an entire road and stop water seeping in so much. Patching potholes tends to be bitty, and even when it is is done leads to an unsightly "crazy paving" look. Doing a whole street uniformly may well be cheaper in the long run and gives a more even feel to the street scape.
Secondly, with a reliable stream of business it is easier to set something like the LoHac contract up allowing like for like comparisons across contractors and pushing prices down through transparency.
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