Fury as £4billion of Britain’s foreign aid budget goes towards fixing POTHOLES abroad

[dricia]

OUTRAGE erupted yesterday as it emerged the Government has spent nearly £4 billion of foreign aid money on improving roads and railways around the world – including projects in Pakistan and India.

As Britain’s own transport infrastructure grinds to a halt, the foreign aid spending watchdog revealed taxpayers have spent £265 million on a new roads corridor in Pakistan.

This was to boost road safety, upgrade its national highway infrastructure and to “strengthen private sector engagement,” according to the Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI) report.

Some £37 million has been spent on projects in India to improve “access to better quality transport” and upgrading state and rural roads.

This is despite the fact that India has its own space programme and is planning to spend £10bn on a fleet of warships.

Other spending included £700 million fund to provide transport, water and electricity on an island the size of Birmingham on Lake Victoria in East Africa. The project included building an “all-weather road”.

Motorist campaign group FairFuel UK said it “beggars belief” that taxpayers are paying for roads to be fixed around the world while councils in England and Wales face a £14 billion bill for repairing pothole-plagued roads.

And Tory MPs demanded ministers prioritise sorting out the chaos on Britain’s railways before spending any more on foreign transport networks.

FairFuel UK founder Howard Cox stormed: “The UK’s third world quality roads continue to be ignored and underfunded for the benefit of overseas vanity projects.

The highest taxed drivers in the world will be rightly incensed their daily battles with chronic delays, potholes and congestion are not being resolved in order to help the 7th richest nation in the world, India.”

Tory MP Philip said: “We are crying out for infrastructure improvements in the UK to boost our economy.

“Surely the Government should be spending money on those before sloshing it around the world to boost the infrastructure in other countries.”