The 5% rise in lorries on British roads since last year – by 1.7bnt – had worn down roads and created more potholes, claimed the Local Government Association (LGA).
LGA transport spokesman Martin Tett said: “Our local roads network faces an unprecedented funding crisis and the latest spike in lorries could push our local roads network over the edge.
“Lorries exert massively more weight on road surfaces than cars, causing them to crumble far quicker.”
The food and drink industry accounts for nearly one quarter of road traffic in the UK, according to the Department for Transport’s road freight statistics for 2015.
But the FTA rejected claims that heavy goods vehicles were mainly responsible for the poor state of Britain’s roads, instead blaming a lack of government spending on road repair.
14-year repairs backlog
It called for on central government to reverse the cuts in spending on local infrastructure, which it claimed had caused a 14-year repairs backlog across the national road network.
The FTA’s head of policy Christopher Snelling said the LGA’s report was an attempt to escape responsibility for the problem.
“The real issue is the need for increased funding from central government to address the potholes problem nationwide,” said Snelling.
“Local authorities are facing large bills – one-off costs of approximately £69M per council – to bring their roads up to a reasonable condition.”
Snelling called for the two organisations to work together to secure more support from national government to address the problem.
“The transportation of essential goods on our roads is crucial to the continued health of the economy. To claim that lorries are the cause of the potholes across the country is simply not true,” added Snelling.
£50M a year through additional wear
The LGA’s report also claimed the overloading of goods vehicles cost the UK more than £50M a year through additional wear and tear to roads and bridges.
However, Snelling said this showed the LGA had a clear lack of understanding of the impact of freight vehicles.
“Larger lorries do not cause increased damage to the road surface – in fact, they have more axles which spread payloads more evenly,” said Snelling.
“When combined with road-friendly twin tyres and road-friendly suspension, this reduces the impact of road usage by lorries.”
Road traffic generated by food and drink sector
The food and drink sector accounts for nearly 25% of UK road traffic, according to the Department for Transport.