The Local Government Association reckons that its member authorities repaired more than two million potholes last year. After large parts of the country were engulfed by snow and ice last month, this year they are even busier.
But local authorities will receive £165m less capital funding from central government to fix roads this year than they did in 2010.
Cllr Peter Box, chairman of the Local Government Association’s economy and transport board, said: “Ensuring our roads are kept up to a safe standard for motorists is a priority for councils and we will be working flat out to repair as many potholes as we possibly can. The coldest December in 100 years will have taken a massive toll on our roads and this damage is coming at a time when councils are being made to scale back their highways maintenance budgets.
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“Last year councils on average fixed one pothole every 33 seconds. With tens of millions of pounds being cut from road maintenance budgets this year it is going to be a huge struggle for already-stretched highways teams to keep up.”
Potholes form when water on roads seeps into the surface and opens up cracks when it freezes and expands. The process is repeated over and over again as ice and snow thaws and re-freezes during winter weather, cracking roads apart and leaving holes in their wake.
Examples of work being undertaken by councils to fix potholes include:
- Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council has fixed nearly 1,000 potholes in the past two weeks and has set a page up on its website to make it easier for people to report holes in the road.
- Southampton City Council is predicting a 20% increase in the number of potholes on city roads this year and has invested in a new instant pothole repair solution called Viafix which can be poured into potholes to provide a permanent fix.
- Lancashire County Council spent £16.9m fixing potholes and resurfacing roads last year and expects to have to spend about the same this year.
- Gloucestershire County Council repaired about 90,000 potholes in 2010 – more than the previous three years combined – and is now assessing the damage caused by last month’s extreme weather.
- Dorset County Council has fixed about 3,200 potholes since October 2010. Its highways team is using an infra-red ‘Nu-Phalt’ cooker which repairs roads more quickly with less waste.
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