Some potholes took a year and a half for councils to repair, according to new data released by the Liberal Democrats.
In the figures obtained as part of a Freedom of Information request, two councils in England were found to have taken 18 months to fix potholes after they had been reported to them.
On average, it took councils a month, but the data – from 81 councils across England – shows some huge differences in the timescales to repair potholes, which have become such a contentious local and national issue. Stoke on Trent City Council took 567 days to fix a specific pothole, while 556 days was the next worst delay, the responsibility of Westminster City Council.
The 81 councils reported 556,658 potholes in the financial year 2021/22, up from 519,968 in 2017/18.
The worst affected authority was Derbyshire County Council, where the roads featured 90,596 potholes, followed closely by Lancashire County Council with 67,439 and Northumberland County Council with 51,703.
The Liberal Democrats say that the £500 million cuts to road maintenance budgets since 2021/22 has deepened the pothole problem, and are calling for more public spending to help councils.
“Motorists should not have to spend their journeys choosing between hitting potholes or dangerously swerving around an obstacle course of tarmac craters”, said Liberal Democrat local government spokesperson Helen Morgan.
“People are paying huge bills to repair damage from potholes, while this Conservative Government takes away the money local councils need to repair our roads. It is not fair for local residents in some areas of the country to be waiting over a year for road repairs because their council cannot afford it.”
