Major disparities in how road defects are actioned by councils are putting road users at risk, according to the RAC.
Analysis conducted by the motoring services provider and Channel 4’s Dispatches has uncovered major disparities in how road defects are actioned by councils.
Of the 206 councils in Great Britain with responsibility for roads, around a third (35%, or 71) list specific depths and in some cases widths that potholes must be before they are fixed – meaning some defects are deemed too small to repair. The most common depth stated is 4cm (54 councils) but in the case of six councils – Warwickshire, Torbay, Thurrock, Nottingham, Torfaen and South Lanarkshire – potholes need to be at least 5cm deep to be considered for repair.
This means members of the public who proactively report potholes to local authorities with a view to getting them repaired may often be left frustrated when no action is taken and potholes are simply left to get bigger in order to merit repair.
Meanwhile, three in 10 councils (29%, or 59) don’t state any criteria publicly online for repairing potholes.
Only 37% (76 councils) say they take a ‘risk-based approach’ to deciding which potholes to fix and how quickly. And many of these don’t often provide much information to explain how this works. There is precious little consistency too, according to the RAC. For example, it found East Riding Council, which uses a risk-based approach to repairing road defects, very positively explains that it inspects all reported potholes within 24 hours, fixing the most urgent within the same timeframe, and then clearly sets out how it prioritises repairing the rest. In complete contrast, Redcar and Cleveland Council does not appear to have a single page on its website even referencing potholes, nor an ability for people to report them online.
The RAC warned that the lack of a consistent approach among local authorities to pothole repairs could impact all road users. And it’s especially concerned the use of specific size-based criteria could be being used by councils as a means of ‘kicking the can down the road’ and avoiding repairing potholes.
It’s now calling for councils to be required to take a risk-based approach to deciding when road defects need attention. New guidance should include criteria councils must use when assessing potholes – including how busy a road is, and how commonly it is used by cyclists – and recognise that just because a pothole may not meet certain depth and width measurements, it may nonetheless represent a hazard to road users
The RAC also says local authorities, if they are not already doing so, should use their websites to publish details on the criteria used for assessing reported potholes, how it actions pothole reports from the public and a phone number that people can use for potholes deemed to be emergencies.
RAC spokesperson Rod Dennis said: “There’s no doubting councils are in an incredibly difficult position when it comes to looking after their roads. Despite the promise of more funds from central government, the fact remains that the desperate state of many of the country’s highways is something that has been many years in the making, and there are no quick fixes.
“We believe there is an urgent need for Whitehall to provide fresh guidance to councils to bring about consistency when it comes to prioritising potholes and taking action to fix them. We’re also concerned about reports that some councils are refusing compensation claims from drivers who have damaged their cars from potholes, by stating they already have them scheduled for repair – even if that repair isn’t due for months.”
The RAC has called on successive governments to ringfence a proportion of the money raised through fuel duty, to give councils the certainty of additional dedicated road maintenance funding for years to come.
While last year saw the Government pledge £8.3bn to councils in England over an 11-year period following the cancellation of northern legs of HS2, it’s only sufficient to resurface 5,000 miles of road, which the RAC has calculated is just 3% of all the roads in England.
