Only one in 10 local authorities are meeting their own target times to fix potholes and other road defects, new research has revealed today.

Cycling UK found most councils set a three week target time to repair non-urgent potholes. However, no councils in Scotland or Wales responding to their freedom of information request achieved this, and only one in six English authorities met this target time.

North Tyneside Council repaired all 39,258 identified potholes on time between 2015-19, making it the most effective authority. It said Wakefield City Council was the worst performer, managing to fill only 13% of reported potholes on time.

However, the research also found that councils are fixing significantly more potholes than those reported to them by the public.

Keir Gallagher, campaigns manager at Cycling UK, said: ‘While Boris Johnson talks about “levelling up” the country’s infrastructure, the reality is that millions of miles of roads in the UK aren’t even fit for purpose in the first place.

‘The reality is, local authorities cannot deal with this issue without a long-term funding commitment from Government, enabling them to plan ahead as opposed to constantly trying to play catch-up with the ever-expanding pothole crisis.’