Fast-lane councils fix potholes in minutes

THE fastest councils in Britain aim to fill severe potholes within minutes - but others take more than a day, new figures show.

Analysis by motoring research charity the RAC Foundation found that Cumbria, Flinstshire and South Lanarkshire try to act ‘immediately’ to repair road defects which pose the greatest safety risk to drivers and riders.

Harrow Council has a target repair time of half an hour, while a further 16 councils aim to patch things up within an hour.

The most common response time is two hours, with 79 local authorities looking to patch up their roads within this period.

Coventry City Council has the longest target time for severe pothole repairs, aiming to respond within five days.

Response times are influenced by how many miles of road a council has to manage and the size of the council area.

The figures are based on data provided by 190 of the 207 local highway authorities in Britain.

RAC Foundation director Steve Gooding said: “It is understandable that large rural authorities set themselves longer response times, simply as a result of having to travel further to effect repairs, but motorists might still be surprised to see such a wide variation across the country.”

These are the councils with the quickest target response times for serious potholes:

IMMEDIATELY: Flintshire, Cumbria and South Lanarkshire 30 MINUTES: Harrow ONE HOUR: Slough, Walsall, Sheffield, Rochdale, Bracknell Forest, Hartlepool, Warwickshire, Swindon, Worcestershire, Derby, Ealing, Bexley, Birmingham, Stoke on Trent, Wirral and Isle of Anglesey.

These are the councils with the slowest response times to serious potholes: FIVE DAYS: Coventry 72 HOURS: Leicestershire 48 HOURS: Cornwall and Isles of Scilly 36 HOURS: Bournemouth Further analysis by the RAC Foundation found that local highway authorities are increasingly adopting a riskbased approach to fixing road defects.

This means the volume of traffic and mix of road users is taken into account when deciding how quickly to act, as well as the size of a pothole.