Potholes are one of motorist’s most-hated obstacles, but as well as just the inconvenience of them – they can also be costly.
A Freedom of Information (FOI) request has found that 1,031,787 potholes were reported in 2016, while a third of drivers have said that their cars have been damaged by potholes.
The request was made by Confused.com and revealed that of the 200 local authorities that answered the request, over one million potholes were reported.
Scotland and South West England were found to have the worst pothole problems, with 153,310 and 138,672 being reported respectively, with each region having the most severe (in size) potholes, too.
However, the request also found that the UK’s pothole problem costed local councils £3.1m in compensation for damages caused to vehicles from potholes. Local authorities in Wiltshire and Surrey were the councils that had to pay out the most for potholes with each having to pay out £507,546 and £343,685 respectively for damages.
Despite councils spending £104 million on repairing potholes in 2016 – an average of £245 per pothole – 69 per cent of motorists still think that more needs to be done to fix the problem – from a sample size of 2000.
The response also found that in some areas, the average to repair to repair a pothole was excessive, with the local authority in Westminster spending an average of £2,400 to repair each pothole.
Amanda Stretton, motoring editor at Confused.com, said: “Potholes are a bugbear among drivers, not least because of the damage they do to our vehicles – around £3.1m worth of damage.
“If drivers experience a bump in the road, they should report it to their local council as soon as possible before the problem gets any worse. The cost of motoring alone is getting more and more expensive and damage repairs is a big contributor to this, as car parts increase in price as well.”
