Recent data shows that the backlog of carriageway repairs in England and Wales has reached new heights at almost £17 billion – the highest figure in 30 years of reporting.
According to the Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance (ALARM) survey report, which provides insight into the funding and conditions of the local road network based on information provided directly by those responsible for its maintenance, roads are only resurfaced, on average, once every 93 years.
In response Councillor Mark Goldsmith, Chair of Cheshire East Council's Highways and Transport Committee said "It's clear our roads have taken a hammering this winter. The prolonged icy weather has caused a huge number of potholes to appear very quickly. Last week we filled 4,500* potholes to keep our roads safe and we expect to fill 60,000 this year. That compares to 37,000 last year.
"However, this growing number just highlights how our roads are failing. Pothole repairs may keep roads safe, but they are only a short-term fix. We need a long-term solution and that means spending more money on resurfacing them. But this needs a level of investment that councils cannot afford, even though it would save money over the long-term."
Earlier this month, Cheshire East Council hit back following reports in a national newspaper that Cheshire East Council is the worst in the UK for potholes.
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.
On March 6th 2025, Councillor Mark Goldsmith 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."
* Unless I have misunderstood, the figures quoted are conflicting so I have asked Cheshire East Council for clariifcartion.
Continuing his response to the ALARM Report Councillor Mark Goldsmith added "For decades, successive governments have passed less than 4p in every £1 paid by motorists in road taxes onto councils to maintain them. It's been far too little, for far too long and now it shows.
"The scale of this national problem was identified in the latest Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance (ALARM) survey that was published this week. It said there are almost £17bn worth of potholes across the UK. This is more than 10 times the annual amount government gives local councils for road maintenance. Current levels of funding are just not enough. The 2,100 miles of motorway that the Government maintains gets a similar level of funding as the 250,000 miles of local roads councils look after.
"Too much tax has been diverted away from local roads, and it is unrealistic and unfair for council tax to be expected to replace it. Therefore, the new government needs to urgently commit to funding a national investment programme to resurface our local roads."
Comments
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The reporter queries the numbers but there doesn’t appear to be an answer. I think that most Road users will know which figure is more accurate. They will also know that the shoddy quality of most patch repairs is an utter waste of our money.
It's funny that 17,000 + potholes are what is generally accepted by almost every one else, apart from the Cheshire East Council members.
To add to their woes, the 17,000 + potholes were announced and shown on national television about 1 week ago when a news reporter visited Cheshire East.
(Ha, not ALL the 17,000 as they only had limited broadcasting time)
If this Council can't do their job properly, then they should be shown the door.
They're an utter disgrace and shouldn't be holding Public Office.
Councils in England must show how they are improving roads and tackling what the government describes as a "pothole plague" or lose out on millions of pounds in funding.
The Department for Transport (DfT) said local authorities will start to get a share of a £1.6bn road maintenance pot from mid-April.
However, it said English councils must publish annual reports detailing progress on pothole fixing or face losing a quarter of the full allocation.
The Local Government Association (LGA), which represents councils, said the government should focus on preventative measures rather than "reactively" fixing potholes.
According to data from the RAC, there are six potholes for every mile of road in England and Wales.
The LGA has estimated clearing the country's backlog of road repairs would take more than a decade and cost some £17bn to fix.
All local authorities who are eligible will get 75% of the extra cash promised, but if they are deemed by the government to not to be tackling potholes adequately, the remaining 25% could be withheld.
Funding that is held back will be redistributed to councils that have proven to have made the required progress.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said broken roads were "not only risking lives but also cost working families, drivers and businesses hundreds - if not thousands of pounds - in avoidable vehicle repairs".
He added that councils have the cash to get on with the job.
However, Lucy Nethsingha, leader of Cambridgeshire County Council and chair of the LGA's Liberal Democrat group, told the BBC the amount of money was "nowhere near the amount that is needed".
"The implication that we are not spending it well, is not helpful," she told the BBC's Today programme, adding that the government was announcing "stuff that was already announced several times over and that doesn't help increase people's faith in politics".
"It's not clear that there is extra money coming as a result of this announcement. There is extra red tape and I don't think that's going to be helpful," she said.
Roads 'worn out'
Ms Nethsingha said in order to fix the roads in Cambridgeshire alone, the council had a shortfall £410m while the money the government was "re-announcing" for the whole of England was £500m.
"Our roads are like a worn out pair of trousers, you can keep fixing the holes, but what you actually need is a new pair of trousers - or in this case a proper resurfacing."
Under the government's rules, councils must say how much they are spending, how many potholes have been filled and detail long-term road maintenance plans in reports that have to be published by the end of June.
By the end of October, councils must also demonstrate that communities have been consulted on where repairs should take place.
The DfT added that councils who "fail to meet these strict conditions" will see 25% of the funding withheld.
The policy will only apply to English councils as funding for Scottish, Welsh, and Northern Irish local authorities is a devolved matter.
During the election campaign, Labour pledged to repair up to a million potholes a year in England.
Questioned by the BBC whether withholding cash from some councils would just make things worse for drivers in some areas, Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said she expected most local authorities would be ably to "comply with these requirements".
"We want councils to be open and honest about they are using that money so that the public can go onto their local council's website and see what action is being taken," she told BBC Breakfast.
'Preventative measures'
The LGA said it was in "everyone's interests to ensure that public money is well spent".
"This includes the government playing its full part by using the Spending Review to ensure that councils receive sufficient, long-term funding certainty, so they can focus their efforts on much more cost-effective, preventative measures rather than reactively fixing potholes, which is more expensive," it added.
Shadow transport secretary Gareth Bacon described the government's announcement as a "pothole sticking plaster".
He said: "Labour like to talk a big game on fixing roads but they are more interested in chasing headlines."
The Liberal Democrats transport spokesman Paul Kohler called for a "more sustainable approach" to repairs, saying fixing individual potholes was welcome but did little to address a "crumbling road infrastructure".
I don’t know what Ringway Jacobs, the long term contractor will fill in or ignore until it exceeds the specn. for payment.
It’s a murky old business.
The work carried out that I have seen in Mottram St Andrew is very poor.
Bill Pilkington
1) The Department (for Transport) has not taken its overall responsibility for policy and use of taxpayer funds sufficiently seriously when looking at local roads;
2) The Department has insufficient knowledge of the condition of local roads;
3) The Department’s approach to funding is short-term and fragmented, hindering local authorities from planning more cost-effective work;
4) The Department does not allocate funding to local authorities for the maintenance of local roads according to where it is most needed;
5) The Department has not evaluated its approaches to funding local roads to know whether they are delivering value for money; and
6) The Department has not provided enough support and guidance to local authorities to deal with current and future challenges in maintaining local roads.
It is therefore of small wonder that the country’s roads are in the condition they are, when successive governments of varied political persuasions have failed to grasp either the scale of the problem, the causes underlying it, or the allocation of funding required to address it.
Kind regards,
Craig