Potholes on some roads must be at least a foot wide or they won’t be filled

Potholes are a scourge
Potholes are a scourge but some have to be a minimum size to be filled in - cmspic/iStockphoto

Councils are refusing to fix potholes unless they are at least a foot wide, analysis has revealed.

Thirteen local authorities, including Buckinghamshire, Stockport and Devon, say that only potholes at least 30cm (11.8in) wide and 4cm (1.6in) deep will be repaired.

More than a third – 35 per cent – of councils have a minimum size a pothole must be before they will act, research by the RAC and Channel 4’s Dispatches programme found.

The news comes after the cost of bringing pothole-plagued local roads in England and Wales up to scratch was estimated at £16.3 billion earlier this year.

More than a million potholes were reported to councils last year.

Despite contractors filling in just over two million potholes over the same period, the RAC estimates that there are still around a million potholes present at any given point as the nation’s roads continue crumbling away.

The most common depth of pothole that councils require the road craters to have reached before they repair them is 4cm (1.6in), the RAC research found, with 54 of the country’s 206 highways authorities giving that figure when asked.

Rod Dennis, an RAC spokesman, said: “For a long time, we’ve advised the public to report each and every pothole they come across to their local authority, not least as a council can refuse to compensate for damage caused from hitting one if they can prove they didn’t know it existed.

“But unfortunately, as this analysis shows, just reporting a road defect doesn’t guarantee it will get fixed.

“This can be enormously frustrating for anyone who comes across one, reports it but then witnesses it get even bigger and more dangerous as it didn’t quite reach a council’s threshold for repair.”

One of countless potholes has been marked for filling
One of countless potholes has been marked for filling - Tim Parker/iStockphoto

The other 10 councils that refuse to fix potholes unless they are at least 300mm wide are: Gloucestershire, the London Borough of Havering, North East Lincolnshire, Plymouth, Rochdale, Southend, Telford, Trafford, Warrington, Wiltshire and Wirral.

Six councils – Warwickshire, Torbay, Thurrock, Nottingham, Torfaen and South Lanarkshire – said that potholes need to be at least 5cm (2in) deep to be filled in.

Just over one in three councils said they take a “risk-based approach” in deciding which potholes to fix and how quickly to do so, while 29 per cent do not state any criteria online.

Common vehicle problems caused by potholes include damaged shock absorbers, broken suspension springs and distorted wheels.

Recently, The Telegraph reported on an enormous “crater” the length of a double-decker bus that appeared on a road in a Wiltshire hamlet.

A huge pothole was found in Charlton-All-Saints to be 41ft long, 7ft wide and 8in deep.

Villagers accused Wiltshire council of “papering over the cracks” with slapdash repairs, although the local authority said it had only been able to do temporary repairs and promised to undertake the works once surface water had receded.

In October 2023, the Government announced it would provide £8.3 billion of extra funding over 11 years to fix potholes in England.

This was part of the Network North strategy to use money saved by scrapping the planned extension of HS2 north of Birmingham.

Darren Rodwell, the transport spokesman for the Local Government Association, said: “Councils are on the side of all road users and want to focus on properly resurfacing our roads, including tackling the £16.3 billion backlog of road repairs.

“Many factors affect repair rates, such as the road profile, traffic levels and available budgets.

“Councils would much prefer to focus on preventive repairs but only greater, year-on-year long-term funding certainty for maintaining all parts of our highways will help them achieve this.

A Department for Transport spokesman said: “Local authorities are responsible for maintaining their local roads, including setting criteria for repairs, but we’re supporting them with an additional £8.3 billion of reallocated HS2 funding – the biggest ever funding increase for local road improvements.