The Daily Telegraph is launching a nationwide campaign, Fix Our Potholes, to demand that local authorities start fixing their roads and improve conditions for motorists, businesses and the emergency services.

According to analysis of DfT data up to 82 per cent of the local roads flagged as in need of maintenance were ignored by councils last year, the highest proportion since records began in 2008, says the Telegraph.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer pledged to give councils £1.6 billion of ring-fenced funds for fixing pothole-plagued roads, with up to 75 per cent being given to local authorities upfront, with the remaining portion handed over by the Government if councils show that the cash is being spent on road repairs.

Motoring figures cautioned that throwing money at pothole repairs was only part of the solution.

Edmund King, president of the AA, said: “Potholes and the state of our roads are the number one transport concern for 96 per cent of AA members so it is great that The Telegraph is highlighting this essential issue.

“The solution is not just about funding, but it is about using innovation to instigate more permanent repairs rather than the all-too-common patchwork approach.

“Unfortunately, the current wet and cold spell is likely to take its toll on the UK’s local roads so urgent action will be required.”

Steve Gooding, the RAC Foundation’s director, welcomed the Government’s £1.6 billion for getting ahead of the “pothole plague”.

“The gauntlet this lays down is not just for roads departments to show they can spend the money wisely but for the highways sector to establish whether modern materials and engineering mean a solution is there to be had to break us out of our currently worsening ‘whack-a-mole’ cycle of patching and mending,” he said.

Pic: Getty Images/RAC