From minutes to days...pothole repair speed’s a postcode lottery

POTHOLE repair on Britain's roads is a postcode lottery, a survey revealed yesterday.

Target times to fill in severe potholes vary from just minutes to several days.

Top marks went to Cumbria, Flintshire and South Lanarkshire who try to respond immediately while Coventry, with a five-day target, came bottom.

The average response time given by 79 town and county councils surveyed was two hours.

Harrow Council has a target of 30 minutes, while 16 authorities aim to fix things within an hour.

Response times varied with how many miles of road a council has to manage. The figures, compiled by the RAC Foundation, are based on data provided by 190 of 207 local highway authorities.

The RAC's Steve Gooding said: “It is understandable that large rural authorities set themselves longer response times but... those particularly vulnerable – cyclists and motorcyclists – might ask whether the speed of pothole investigation should be based solely on the risk to users.”

A pothole is repaired every 21 seconds across Britain.

Martin Tett, of the Local Government Association, said keeping roads safe “is one of the most important jobs councils do”.

FASTEST FIXERS

QUICKEST: Flintshire, Cumbria and South Lanarkshire (in minutes). PROMPT: Harrow (30 minutes), Slough, Walsall, Sheffield, Bracknell Forest, Rochdale, Hartlepool, Warwickshire, Swindon, Worcestershire, Derby, Ealing, Bexley, Birmingham, Stoke on Trent, Wirral and Isle of Anglesey (one hour). SLOWEST: Coventry (five days), Leicestershire (three days), Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly (two days).