Half of drivers have to get around potholes EVERY day – with one in five racking up repair bills of over £100
Britain’s pothole crisis has been laid bare by a survey finding nearly half of us swerve to avoid them on a daily basis.
Two-thirds of drivers surveyed said their roads had deteriorated over the past year – and just one in 14 believed there had been an improvement.
Those in Scotland and Wales were particularly frustrated, with 80% and 76% respectively saying they are encountering more potholes than a year ago.
And 45% of all survey participants said they had to swerve every day to avoid potholes.
The Daily Mail is campaigning to end the pothole plague.
Analysis of local authority data by Comparethemarket has listed the municipalities most lagging behind in road repairs
All major A roads and Motorways in England are maintained by the National Motorways, while the Welsh Government and Transport Scotland run the larger roads in their country.
Jack Cousens of the AA said: “As drivers and cyclists look like downhill skiers as they slalom around potholes, it’s no wonder so many people think road conditions are getting worse. deteriorated over the past year.” Just under half of motorists said they had damaged their car when hitting a pothole, according to the survey by market research firm Consumer Intelligence.
Of these, one in five said they incurred costly repair bills of over £100.
All major A roads and Motorways in England are maintained by the National Motorways, while the Welsh Government and Transport Scotland run the larger roads in their country. However, the councils of the three countries should take care of the smaller roads.
Almost three in ten of the 1,079 survey respondents said they had reported a pothole to a local authority. Of these, 15% said the council completed the repairs within a week, a fifth said it took more than a month and 23% said they were still waiting for the work to be done.
The Daily Mail is campaigning to end the pothole plague and has called for fuel tax revenue to be earmarked for council pothole budgets
Councils say historic funding cuts and rising repair costs mean they cannot afford to stay on top of potholes. Half of the drivers surveyed blamed the plague of potholes on a lack of government funding.
However, six in ten said the advice did not fix them properly.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is facing growing pressure to offer local authorities extra cash for road repairs in next week’s budget.
Last month, the Daily Mail called for revenue from fuel tax to be earmarked for council pothole budgets. A total of 64% of drivers supported this idea.
A government spokesman said it would invest £5billion from 2020-2025 in maintaining local motorways to patch millions of potholes a year alongside other road repairs.
Councilor David Renard, of the Local Government Association, said the government ‘spent 31 times more per mile maintaining motorways and A-roads last year than it did funding councils to repair local roads in ruins”.
