Pothole numbers and costs

I am writing to you under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to request the following information from yourselves:

1. The number of potholes reported within your local authority area in 2016, 2017 and 2018 up to date.

Whilst we can provide the figures below, the number of reports alone does not reflect the actual number of potholes because some potholes will be reported multiple times, some reports will be of multiple potholes, some reports will be of defects that don’t meet the national criteria, and some reports refer to defects on roads or car parks that are not within this council’s jurisdiction.

2016 = 55321
2017 = 49334
2018 = 40482 to date

2. The number of potholes repaired within your local authority area in 2016, 2017 and 2018 up to date.

With respect to the information for 2017 onwards this is only recorded on a financial year (FY) basis (April-March) so this cannot be directly compared to previous years.

2016 = 65,142

2017 (January to March only) = 10,376

2017/18 FY = 72,245

2018/19 FY year to date (April – June) = 23,211

3. The amount of money the local authority has spent on repairing potholes within your local authority area in 2016, 2017 and 2018 up to date.

Financial data is held based on the financial years.

2015 -16: £2.66 million

2016 -17: £2.71 million.

2017 – 18: £3.42 million*

*This figure is estimated and is based upon the typical percentage spend of the overall safety defect budget on potholes in previous years (approx. 54%).

4. The amount of money the local authority has spent in 2016, 2017 and 2018 up to date on paying compensation to claimants where vehicle damage was caused by damaged road surfaces, including potholes.

2016 = £24,084
2017 = £20,228
2018 = £24,821 to date