Concern at pothole damage reports in lockdown

THOUSANDS of drivers suffered pothole-related breakdowns between April and June despite traffic volumes plummeting amid the coronavirus lockdown, new figures show.

One of the UK’S major breakdown rescue firms, the RAC, said it received 1,766 call-outs for vehicles damaged by faulty road surfaces over the three months.

It described the figures as “a real cause for concern” as Government data shows motor traffic volumes fell by as much as 60 per cent during that period due to lockdown restrictions.

Some 1.1% of all breakdowns were related to potholes, such as vehicle failures caused by distorted wheels, broken suspension springs or damaged shock absorbers.

This was down from 1.6% in the first quarter of the year but was identical to the figure for the same period in 2019, indicating that roadsurface quality did not significantly improve over the past 12 months.

RAC head of roads policy Nicholas Lyes said he expected to see a sharper fall in the proportion of breakdowns attributed to potholes.

This is because motorists made fewer and shorter trips during the lockdown, and local authorities had the opportunity to fix more road problems while there was less traffic than normal.

Mr Lyes said: “On the surface, these statistics appear encouraging because they make it seem as though the quality of our roads hasn’t worsened but, when you consider how few vehicles were on the road, they are a real cause for concern.

“We would have hoped to have seen a far bigger drop in the share of pothole-related breakdowns than we would do normally, but instead it was just the same as usual.

“We were very surprised by how many of these call-outs we dealt with during lockdown.”