Half of drivers have to swerve past potholes EVERY day

BRITAIN’S pothole crisis has been laid bare by a survey revealing nearly half of us swerve to avoid them on a daily basis.

Two-thirds of drivers polled said their roads had got worse over the last year – and only one in 14 believed there had been an improvement.

Those in Scotland and Wales were particularly frustrated, with 80 per cent and 76 per cent respectively saying they encounter more potholes than a year ago.

And 45 per cent of all survey participants said they had to swerve to avoid potholes every day.

The Daily Mail is campaigning to end the pothole plague.

Jack Cousens of the AA said: ‘As drivers and cyclists resemble downhill skiers as they slalom around potholes, it is little wonder that so many believe road conditions have worsa ened in the last year.’ Just under half of motorists reported damaging their car by hitting a pothole, according to the poll by market research company Consumer Intelligence.

Of those, one in five said they had incurred costly repair bills of more than £100.

All major A roads and motorways in England are maintained by National Highways, while the Welsh Government and Transport Scotland manage larger roads in their countries. However, councils across all three nations are expected to look after smaller roads.

Nearly three in ten of the 1,079 poll respondents said they had reported pothole to a local authority. Of those, 15 per cent said the council carried out repairs within a week, a fifth said it took over a month and 23 per cent said they were still waiting for works to be carried out.

Councils claim historic funding cuts and rising repair costs mean they cannot afford to keep on top of potholes. Half of the drivers polled blamed the pothole plague on a lack of funding from the Government.

However, six in ten said councils were failing to fix them properly.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is facing mounting pressure to offer local authorities extra cash for road repairs in next week’s Budget.

Last month, the Daily Mail called for revenue raised from fuel duty to be ring-fenced for council pothole budgets. In total, 64 per cent of drivers supported this idea.

A government spokesman said it is investing £5billion from 2020 to 2025 into local highways maintenance to fill millions of potholes a year alongside other road repairs.

Councillor David Renard, from the Local Government Association, said the Government ‘spent 31 times more per mile maintaining motorways and A roads last year than it did on funding councils to repair crumbling local roads’.

‘Motorists resemble downhill skiers’