Following its criticism of the Government's poor transport management strategies, the RAC has itself come under fire from environmental campaigners for suggesting more roads need to be built.

The RAC Foundation said in its latest report that Government indecision, poor management and transport departments that lack long-term vision have set back the development of UK roads.

The RAC warns that Britain is facing serious economic and financial problems in future years if a coherent long-term plan is not put in place.

"Badly planned, poorly configured, piecemeal road building programmes should be a feature of our country's past,” said Sheila Rainger, acting director of the RAC Foundation.

"To avoid roads to ruin we need to learn from mistakes, and develop stronger planning frameworks and more powerful delivery organisations with a clear duty to develop and manage the strategic road network.”

However, the Campaign for Better Transport’s roads and climate campaigner, Rebecca Lush Blum, said: “With traffic and carbon emissions rising we agree with the RAC Foundation that the Government’s road policy is a mess.

"However, the RAC Foundation’s solution to build more roads will just take us further back in time and reduce people’s travel choices at a huge financial cost.”

She said policies are needed that reduce traffic growth.