The Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea is among the best local authorities in the country when it comes to dealing with potholes, according to analysis carried out by Cycling UK.
Cycling UK’s ‘Fill That Hole’ feature, which allows cyclists to report potholes and other road defects to local councils, shows 178 reports of potholes in Kensington & Chelsea with 80% of these being dealt with by the local authority.
According to Fill That Hole, Hartlepool is the best local authority area for cyclists, with just 51 instances reported of holes in the road, all of which have been fixed by the local council.
Other London boroughs with relatively low numbers of reported potholes include Sutton (175) and Bexley (177) – with the fix rate being 47% and 16% respectively.
With 10,624 reports of potholes, Surrey is the highway authority where people cycling are most likely to report road defects, while Hampshire follows behind with 6,692. Respectively, only 14% and 15% of these holes have been reported as fixed.
Cyclists in Essex and Lancashire have also ‘fallen victim to Britain’s crumbling roads’, with 4,961 and 4,741 holes in the road respectively being reported, and only 20% of these being fixed in both regions.
Fill That Hole suggests that there have been ‘a staggering’ 196,762 cases of hazardous holes in the road reported by cyclists which equates to, on average, a defect every 110 metres of UK roads. Of this number, only one in five (22%) have been reported as repaired by local highway authorities.
On the back of this data, IAM RoadSmart and Cycling UK have joined forces to issue a ‘pothole plea’ to central government to prioritise residents’ safety by providing funding to local councils to repair defective roads, ‘as a matter of urgency’.
Neil Greig, director of policy and research at IAM RoadSmart, said: “The inconvenience and risks potholes pose to motorists is well-documented, but the threat to cyclists is often overlooked. Even when travelling at a relatively slow pace, a pothole can seriously unbalance a cyclist, leading them to veer out into oncoming traffic, or suffer a nasty fall.
“These figures demonstrate just how prevalent the pothole problem is around the country. There is clearly something of a postcode lottery, as the differences in repair rates highlights the need for some local councils to do better, or ultimately risk the safety, and even lives, of cyclists.”
Keir Gallagher, campaigns manager at Cycling UK, added: “However you travel on UK roads, your journey is likely to be blighted by potholes. When we’re cycling the danger is much more real than when we drive, with there being a real risk of serious injury, or worse.
“With our Fill That Hole feature, Cycling UK has tried to help councils locate the problem areas that they can then fix. However, the real problem is the continued lack of serious, long-term investment in local road maintenance by government.
“We’ve seen a £13 billion pothole problem affecting all road users – that’s not going to be fixed with occasional small fry announcements like we saw in the last budget.”
16 June 2023