Some councils in England are taking over a month on average to fix potholes once they have been reported, a freedom of information (FoI) request has revealed.
Figures provided by 81 councils to the Liberal Democrats have revealed what the party calls a ‘pothole postcode lottery’.
The councils reported 556,658 potholes in the financial year 2021/22, up from 519,968 in 2017/18.
Roads maintained by Derbyshire County Council were the worst affected with 90,596 potholes, followed closely by Lancashire County Council with 67,439 and Northumberland County Council with 51,703.
The highways maintenance budgets of local authorities have been cut by £500m (28%) since 2020-21, although the Government announced a £200m top-up last month.
The FoI revealed that some councils took up to eighteen months to repair potholes. In two cases Stoke-on-Trent City Council and Westminster City Council took 567 and 556 days.
Last year, it took Newham Council 56 days on average to repair the 138 potholes reported, according to the Liberal Democrats. Similarly, Lambeth Council took 50 days on average to fix their 462 potholes – five weeks longer than their 2017/18 average of 14 days.
