Half of drivers have to swerve past potholes EVERY day

Britain’s pothole crisis has been laid bare by a survey revealing nearly half of us swerve to avoid them on a daily basis.

Two-thirds of drivers polled said their roads had got worse over the last year – and only one in 14 believed there had been an improvement.

Those in Scotland and Wales were particularly frustrated, with 80 per cent and 76 per cent respectively saying they encounter more potholes than a year ago.

And 45 per cent of all survey participants said they had to swerve to avoid potholes every day.

The Daily Mail is campaigning to end the pothole plague.

All major A roads and motorways in England are maintained by National Highways, while the Welsh Government and Transport Scotland manage larger roads in their countries

The Daily Mail is campaigning to end the pothole plague and called for revenue raised from fuel duty to be ring-fenced for council pothole budgets

Jack Cousens of the AA said: ‘As drivers and cyclists resemble downhill skiers as they slalom around potholes, it is little wonder that so many believe road conditions have worsened in the last year.’ Just under half of motorists reported damaging their car by hitting a pothole, according to the poll by market research company Consumer Intelligence.

Of those, one in five said they had incurred costly repair bills of more than £100.

All major A roads and motorways in England are maintained by National Highways, while the Welsh Government and Transport Scotland manage larger roads in their countries. However, councils across all three nations are expected to look after smaller roads.

Nearly three in ten of the 1,079 poll respondents said they had reported a pothole to a local authority. Of those, 15 per cent said the council carried out repairs within a week, a fifth said it took over a month and 23 per cent said they were still waiting for works to be carried out.

Analysis of local authority data by Comparethemarket has mapped out which councils are falling behind the most on road repairs

Councils claim historic funding cuts and rising repair costs mean they cannot afford to keep on top of potholes. Half of the drivers polled blamed the pothole plague on a lack of funding from the Government.

However, six in ten said councils were failing to fix them properly.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is facing mounting pressure to offer local authorities extra cash for road repairs in next week’s Budget.

Last month, the Daily Mail called for revenue raised from fuel duty to be ring-fenced for council pothole budgets. In total, 64 per cent of drivers supported this idea.

A government spokesman said it is investing £5billion from 2020 to 2025 into local highways maintenance to fill millions of potholes a year alongside other road repairs.

Councillor David Renard, from the Local Government Association, said the Government ‘spent 31 times more per mile maintaining motorways and A roads last year than it did on funding councils to repair crumbling local roads’.

Tell us about the worst potholes near you and we might FIX IT FOR FREE!

 

Daily Mail, MailOnline and This is Money readers can send pictures of the worst potholes near where they live and you will be automatically entered into the draw to have it permanently removed for free.

When a winner is chosen, JCB will send its crater-fixing PotholePro machine to repair it.

Send an email to [email protected] following the five steps below:

1. Send an email with the subject heading ‘POTHOLE’.

2. Please attach an image no bigger than 2MB of the pothole.

3. Include a brief description of the pothole and just how bad you think it is.

4. Tell us its whereabouts, including the road name and closest city, town or village.

5. Include your full name and a telephone number in case we need to contact you to find out further details about the pothole you’ve nominated – and potentially fix it.

We will choose a selection of the worst potholes you’ve nominated and put it to a reader vote on which one should be repaired by JCB’s PotholePro free of charge.

Personal details will not be shared with any third parties. 

> Find out more about the JCB PotholePro and how it could fix a road near you