A majority of the public agree that fuel duty should be reinvested into local areas and spent on repairing roads, a poll reveals.
Council chiefs this year called on the Government to inject a further £1bn a year into road maintenance by investing the equivalent of 2p per litre of existing fuel duty.
A survey undertaken by Populus for the Local Government Association (LGA) has now found 83% of those questioned back this plan.
The approach won its greatest support in eastern England, with 90% of the region's respondents agreeing that fuel duty should be spent fixing roads. Support was also found in 88% of people polled in Wales and 85% of those in Yorkshire and Humberside.
Cllr Peter Box, LGA transport spokesman, said: 'Councils work hard to fix millions of potholes every year despite deep funding cuts and multi-million pound compensation costs. We want to do more but are trapped in a frustrating and endless cycle of only being able to patch up our deteriorating roads.
'This survey shows that the vast majority of people agree that a small amount of the billions they pay the Treasury each year at the pumps in fuel duty should be reinvested in local areas to bring our decaying roads up to scratch.'
