Britain’s pothole pandemic has cost drivers almost £684 million collectively in the past year according to new research.
A survey from Kwik Fit claims that in the last 12 months, potholes have affected some 6.3 million drivers with each having to pay an average of £108.60 for repairs to tyres, suspension and bodywork.
It’s thought that the high level of pothole damage in the past year has come as a result of record levels of wet weather between November and January.
Wet weather blamed
Of the drivers who suffered pothole-related damage to their cars, 31 per cent said that they had hit a pothole filled with water which they believed to be nothing more than a puddle.
A further 46 per cent said that they would have risked a collision with other traffic after having to swerve off-course in order to avoid a pothole in the road.
The study comes a day after the Asphalt Industry Alliance released its Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance survey, which gathers road authority data to take a snapshot of the roads’ overall condition.
According to the survey’s figures, the average annual shortfall in road maintenance budgets for local authorities has risen by a massive 50 per cent over last year, up to £4.6 million.
The Alliance’s chairman Alan Mackenzie, said that the pothole problem is the “cumulative effect” of decades of underfunding and warned that it’s likely to only worsen in the future.
He said: “The full effect of longer, wetter winters on poorly maintained roads can take a number of years to be fully realised.
'Cumulative effect'
“This, coupled with increased traffic, an ageing network and prolonged under-investment in our local road network means that its resilience is continuing to be tested.”
Councillor Peter Box, Local Government Association transport spokesman, said: “Our roads are deteriorating fast and it would take almost £12 billion and be close to 2030 before we could bring them up to scratch and clear the current roads repair backlog.
“Our polling shows that 83 per cent of the population would support a small amount of the existing billions they pay the Treasury each year in fuel duty being reinvested to help councils bring our roads up to scratch.”
