The state of our roads is an analogy for the state of our country.

So many services have been badly neglected and broken, left with cracks and crevasses, while the basics are crumbling.

There is an urgent need to repair our roads and to rebuild our country. Labour will do both.

The potholes are driving us all potty, and there is barely a journey any of us can take without going over a series of craters.

Years of underfunding and neglect by this Government has left our roads a patchwork of tarmac squares and circular holes before the repairs get battered by the next winter.

As a cyclist it is becoming more precarious each trip I take as the roads set my daily obstacle course.

When walking I frequently get sprayed as cars splash through the water-filled holes and I know that car tyres are getting damaged and suspensions giving, as cars bump along what was once a smooth road.

It is a national problem, which I raise alongside many of my colleagues with increasing regularity in Parliament.

It is estimated that 5,000 miles of roads nationwide need urgent maintenance. After 14 years, and with elections in the air, Ministers are now frantically converting the HS2 project into a pot for the potholes.

Instead of a state-of-the-art world-leading transport plan to level up our economy, the legacy of advanced rail will be lots of little squares of asphalt pasted into our streets to try to level up roads.

City of York Council has 790km of highways and footways to maintain, 3,800 in total.

In addition, many streets in York remain unadopted by the authority, meaning that when repairs are due, the residents have the duty to keep their street well maintained.

Whether it is the council's or the residents’ responsibility, neither can afford the cost of a resurface.

Labour has committed to setting up a ‘pothole fund’ across York and North Yorkshire, something you can vote for, so that we can invest in our vital road network.

A staggering 3,260 potholes have been reported on York’s system, of which 56.9 per cent are priorities for repair.

Make sure you report in too. More than 13,380m2 of tarmac will be required to the tune of £108,577 alone - on top of the skilled teams needed to repair these roads and paths.

Labour’s ambition for transport, however, goes far beyond pothole patches and pavements,.

This week, Labour set out its plan for the railways – they will be re-nationalised.

Great British Railways will bring track and train together for the first time in 30 years, following the Tories' disastrous privatisation.

Not only will this enable vastly improved connectivity and reliability, but it will save £1.5bn every year after the first 5 years.

As a city leading in advanced and digital rail, this will be good for York, providing many opportunities for local rail businesses to invest in rail’s future and for more good jobs for the city.

Firmly on Labour’s radar is the state of our buses too. Once again Tory privatisation handed our bus- routes to private companies who only run services based on profit margins not public need; not running when or where we need them most, some not running at all.

Take a look at what Labour’s Mayor, Andy Burnham, has done in Manchester, or closer to home, Tracy Brabin in West Yorkshire. Resetting the buses as a service to the public is what Labour will do in North Yorkshire.

A good integrated transport system boosts local economies, enables us to get to school or work, with real choice as to how we get there, and, coupled with the urgent need to cut transport emissions, gives us choices which are best for us and best for the environment.

Now put this together. An advanced rail offer, a functioning bus service, repaired roads, alongside more opportunities for cyclists and pedestrians: we will have a really good integrated transport system to rely on. Learning from Labour elsewhere, we know that we can deliver this here too. We just need that Labour government and Labour Mayor alongside our Labour council to make this a reality.

This part is in your hands...

Rachael Maskell is the Labour MP for York Central