Cheshire East Council refutes claims it has most potholes waiting to be repaired

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Cheshire East Council has hit back following reports in a national newspaper that Cheshire East Council is the worst in the UK for potholes.

New analysis by Tempcover, which was based on data from FixMyStreet.com, showed that Cheshire East Council topped the list with 17,191 open pothole reports, with the oldest reported in March 2020.

Councillor Mark Goldsmith, chair of Cheshire East Council's highways and transport committee, said: "Thankfully, Cheshire East does not have 17,197 potholes as incorrectly reported in a recent national newspaper. Instead, at the time of this article appearing, we had 550 defects. This is across a network of almost 1,680 miles (2,700kms).

"Last year, we fixed over 35,000 potholes, and the 550 represent a normal number that we could expect to be assessing. There will of course always be enquiries in the system waiting to be processed but we believe the discrepancy is due to the way reports have been showing on Fix My Street.

"The council will soon be moving away from Fix My Street though and will be launching a new online tool. It will allow residents to easily report a wider variety of issues like potholes, fallen trees, abandoned vehicles and fly-tipping within their community. It will also more accurately record the number of potholes we have too!

"More details will be announced about this in the coming weeks."

Cllr Goldsmith added: "We absolutely understand the frustration that potholes cause to our residents though and we're working effectively to tackle them and are currently putting together our investment programme for 2025/26.

"We're not alone in facing this challenge, with councils across the country battling with this same issue.

"We are using our limited budgets in the best possible way and ensuring that investment made on repairing roads is done using the right treatment, at the right place, at the right time."

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Comments

Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.

David Hadfield
Thursday 6th March 2025 at 10:11 pm
A NATIONAL NEWSPAPER REPORTS THAT CHESHIRE EAST COUNCIL IS THE WORST IN THE UK FOR POTHOLES !

Deny Deny Deny ... Has the national newspaper made up this story ?

(Why is it that Cheshire East Council cannot admit what we already know)

That report CONFIRMS what most residents in Cheshire East already know.
We now learn "The council will shortly be moving away from this particular method of reporting" ... (yeah, I bet they are) !!
Andy Brown
Friday 7th March 2025 at 7:13 am
You could count 550 defects in Alderley Edge alone - never mind the whole county.
Vince Chadwick
Friday 7th March 2025 at 2:40 pm
Only 550 in the whole of Cheshire East?

I just don't believe that, unless CE's definition of a pot hole is something far more massive and dangerous than the average motorist's (and motor cyclist's and cyclist's) definition of one.
David Carey
Friday 7th March 2025 at 5:07 pm
Sorry, I truly find it hard to believe there is only 550 in the whole of the Cheshire East area?
Terry Roeves
Wednesday 12th March 2025 at 2:51 pm
Cllr Mark will now have many of us counting pot holes on our local journeys. Since sizes and depths differ between many councils, it would not surprise me that many we consider to be pot holes are not counted as pot holes by CEC and Ringway Jacobs, the contracted patch up people.
Cllr Mark should clarify his statement with the CEC definition.
Jinnie Edwards
Wednesday 12th March 2025 at 3:21 pm
I don't think there are many roads within CE that do not have a large pothole (or 2 or many more). The Council has been given a huge amount of money from our Labour Government (large pockets?!) to fix potholes. I wrote to Sam Corcoran when he was Head of the Council, asking why hadn't they bought the JCB pro-pothole machine... costs about £165,000 and completes (properly) a pothole in 30 mins... plus the repair actually lasts, unlike the amateur repairs done by the Council. 2 years on, nothing has been done. Stoke Council bought/hired one of these a few years ago and, reportedly, they are extremely satisfied with the results. Instead of wasting money on recruiting more Heads of Departments, ie (Place??) at a salary of about £170,000... the person recruited has been in similar roles within many Councils throughout the UK... we are in dire need of someone in charge of Potholes... might not sound glamorous, but the majority of local people would be highly delighted that a) they don't have to concentrate on missing the multitudinous holes in the road; b) they don't have to drive in the middle of the roads and c) they don't have damaged tyres, etc. Get real C East and give your residents some peace of mind with less paying for repairs for the damage. This is what we need and it is about time that CE did something about the disaster zones that are our roads. Enough is more than enough!

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