The number of potholes being fixed in Lancashire has increased by 28% since last year, Lancashire County Council figures have revealed.
Between 1 January and the end of September, 36,577 potholes were found and repaired by the county council’s highways service. Of those, 92% were fixed within their target time of 22 working days.
This is despite road maintenance crews working through the Coronavirus pandemic, with some staff diverted to other urgent work as a result.
Now the county council is asking people to let them know what they think of the roads in the county.
Last winter’s poor wet weather caused more potholes than usual on Lancashire’s roads. However during the first lockdown repair teams were only able to focus on responding to safety critical defects.
Since then they have been working hard to catch up over the summer and autumn, working with extra safety measures and social distancing in place, said the council.
County Councillor Keith Iddon, cabinet member for highways and transport, said: “It’s been a really tough year for everyone and that includes our pothole repair teams. We had a very wet winter and damage from storms Ciara and Dennis have had a significant impact on our roads.
“Then during the first lockdown our highways staff assisted in setting up NHS Coronavirus testing facilities, the temporary mortuary at Warton and delivered PPE equipment to key workers. They have also recently been involved in setting up a new testing facility in Leyland. I’d like to thank them for working so hard this year in continuing to deliver an excellent service to our residents, despite these extra pressures
“No-one likes to see potholes on the roads and we get a lot of enquiries, so our highways engineers have recently produced a video answering the common questions people ask about them on social media.
“Hopefully this will provide a useful insight into the service and why we do things a certain way, but also show how we are always striving to make Lancashire’s roads as safe as possible.”
The council is urging as many people as possible to complete an online highways survey to rate the county’s roads.
The national highways survey results are used to help plan and prioritise future work.
Lancashire County Council’s target of 22 working days refers to potholes over 40mm but less than 100mm in depth on local access roads, and more than 25mm but less than 75mm depth on local access footways. This includes two working days to visit the site for inspection and assess what action is needed. The total number of potholes fixed and found are those that meet our required level for work, which is dependant on a pothole’s depth and location.
