Quieter roads allow councils to make millions of pothole repairs

POTHOLES are being repaired at record rates as councils take advantage of the empty roads during lockdown.

In Shropshire, pothole gangs completed 9,907 highway tasks between March 23 and Jun 1, alongside a further 25,820 inspections, the local authority said. In March the county reported 5,259 potholes and other defects but this was reduced to below 3,000.

Derbyshire council filled 28,026 pothole in the same period, compared with 12,591 last year. Suffolk reported an 18.5 per cent increase in repairs with more than 6,300 potholes and other highway faults fixed. Manchester laid more than 100,000 square metres of new road surface after April 1.

Highways crews in Bury filled in more than 1,700 potholes and Stokeon-trent council trebled its number of pothole repairs at 1,885.

In May, Grant Shapps, the Transport Secretary, announced a multimillionpound infrastructure package to upgrade roads and railways. The £1.7 billion Transport Infrastructure Investment Fund set out to improve roads, repair bridges and fill 11million potholes. He said they had been “accelerating infrastructure upgrades” to the benefit of those who were starting to commute again.

Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor, had previously announced £2.5 billion would be spent over five years to tackle deteriorating potholes.

♦ Driving tests should resume early in July as testing centres attempt to clear a backlog of thousands of people waiting to receive their licences. The Government has told driving schools that they should prepare for a return to work on July 4, as part of the third phase of easing lockdown, alongside pubs and restaurants. The Telegraph understands that plans will go ahead provided the UK’S coronavirus recovery continues and the infection rate does not spike.

Driving test centres have only been operating for key workers during the crisis, leading to a backlog of thousands of teenagers and other learners who have been waiting to take their tests.