The Number of Potholes Reported Within Your Local Authority

These figures show the total number of enquiries relating to potholes that were logged by our Highways Contact Centre.

Enquiries

Definition of ‘enquiries’

Please note that the figures from before and after May 2016 are not directly comparable. On 1st May 2016 a new Highway contract commenced and a new system was implemented for recording reports, enquiries and requests for information.

For pre May 2016 enquiries these figures include all enquiries, reports and requests for information about the carriageway. This will include reports of potholes, but it is not possible to separate this information from the other enquiries.

For post May 2016 enquiries we have included all enquiries, reports or requests for information logged under the categories listed below. This is because potholes can be reported in any of these categories and it is not possible to determine exactly which did and did not also include reports about potholes.

• Potholes
• Carriageway Condition
• Pavement Condition
• Carriageway Patching
• Carriageway Surface Treatment
• Carriageway Recycling
• Pavement Resurfacing
• Pavement Surface Treatment
• Surface Condition
• Pavement Patching

Enquiries from April 2013 – May 2016

• 2013/2014 : 8935
• 2014/2015: 6948
• 2015/2016: 6698
• April 2016: 517

Enquiries from 1 May 2016

Please note that the increase in enquiries since the start of the new Highways Contract on 1st May 2016 is largely attributable to the changes in the ways that these are recorded and does not reflect an actual increase in the number of potholes reported.

For example, under the pre-May 2016 system, multiple reports about the same issue were sometimes grouped together as a single record.

The new system enables more accurate recording and has made it easier for people to report items to us through a variety of different avenues including email, telephone, website and social media. Individual reports about the same issue are now logged separately and we no longer group them together as multiple reports on a single record.

Pothole repairs

Potholes repaired from April 2012 – end April 2016

• 2012/2013: 44,864
• 2013/2014: 64,237
• 2014/2015: 65,144
• 2015/2016: 72,044
• April 2016: 1004

Potholes repaired from May 2016

Please note that the figures from before and after May 2016 are not directly comparable.

Under the current contract (which began on 1 May 2016) we have implemented a more efficient and cost effective approach to repairing potholes.

We now record potholes that require immediate action differently to those that are not considered to be a safety issue. The minimum depth and width we require a pothole to be immediately actioned can be found in our Highways Asset and Inspection Guidance Document. These types of pothole are recorded as ‘safety issue defects’ and must be repaired within either 2 hours, 5 days or 28 days depending on the size of the pothole.

Since May 2016, only safety issue defects have been individually recorded. Other, non-safety issue potholes are recorded under general condition information and, as described above, can be repaired through larger scale works such as road surfacing schemes or added to asset condition information for future consideration. Although we do not record the specific number of potholes repaired through these works, this equates to approximately 40,000 additional pothole repairs per year.

It should also be noted that the figures from Service Year 1 (May 2016-April 2017) and Service Year 2 (beginning April 2017), are not directly comparable.

In Service Year 1 multiple ‘safety issue’ potholes that were located close together were logged as a single defect as they would be repaired together. However since Service Year 2 each ‘safety issue’ pothole has been recorded separately to help us better understand the condition of our network.

The exact impact of this change is impossible to quantify, but the change would have led to a slight increase in the number of pothole defects recorded from April 2017 onwards.

Appendix 1