‘Pothole plague’: claims up 33% in 2023
Thu, 01 Feb 2024
The ‘pothole plague' on UK roads is getting worse, says the RAC, after attending nearly 30,000 pothole-related breakdowns during 2023 – a 33% increase over 2022 figures.
The staggering 29,377 breakdowns during 2023 is the equivalent of 80 pothole-related breakdowns every single day.
An RAC Pothole Index has tracked the condition of Britain’s roads for the past 18 years. While the all-time high came back in 2010, the current index still shows motorists are more than one-and-a-half times as likely to experience a pothole damage than they were 15 years ago.
The motoring organisation is now calling the shortcomings in Britain’s road maintenance system "embarrassing" and warns the problem is set to only get worse.
"Local councils have been cash-strapped for years due to lower road maintenance budgets," says RAC head of policy Simon Williams. "This is causing roads across the country to fall into disrepair and leaving drivers fighting for compensation when their vehicles are inevitably damaged."
Damage to cars from hitting a pothole includes broken suspension springs, damaged dampers and distorted wheels, along with punctured tyres.
The most recent breakdown figures from the RAC reveal it was called out to 5153 incidents caused by potholes during Q4 2023.
That’s the highest amount for any autumn period since 2017.
Worryingly, we are still in the winter ‘pothole season’, where water makes its way into cracks in the roads, freezes and expands. This causes surfaces to deteriorate even more.
To overcome this, the RAC is urging local highways authorities to completely resurface roads and carry out more surface dressing between April and September on roads that are starting to worsen.
"It’s not just about plugging potholes, it’s a question of getting roads up to a reasonable standard and keeping them that way," says the RAC.
The motoring organisation is now hoping the extra £8.3bn of funding the Government has committed to local councils over the next 11 years will start making a difference.
“We urge the Department for Transport to lay out clear guidance as to how this money should be best used so that councils can actually improve their roads for the future," it adds.
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