Potholes damage one in three cars in North Staffordshire
A third of AA members in North Staffordshire have suffered damage to their cars from potholes over the last two years, according to a survey.
Nationally, a third also rated the overall surface condition of their local roads as poor, very poor or terrible in the AA/Populus survey of nearly 23,000 drivers.
The new report comes after a series of articles in The Sentinel highlighted the treacherous conditions of our local roads.
Motorists have been bombarding the city council with complaints about potholes on Stoke-on-Trent’s roads every 30 minutes.
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Latest figures show the authroity repaired 6,859 potholes in 2012 after receiving 8,735 complaints.
That means an average of 27 complaints are made to council call centre staff Monday to Saturday – the equivalent to at least one every half-an-hour.
The council spent £454,694 repairing potholes last year –with the average crater costing £66 to fix.
But drivers have been contacting The Sentinel with photographs of the region’s crumbling roads.
One motorist is putting in a claim after hitting a pothole in Hartshill Road, Stoke, and having to fork out £62 for a new tyre.
Problem areas include Thornley Road, in Burslem, Smithpool Road, in Fenton, and Ronald Street, Longton.
Mechanic Stephen Withington, aged 48, of Newcastle, who jointly owns Castletown Garage, in Liverpool Road, Newcastle, said: “The damage caused by potholes is getting worse and it is costing motorists because an average tyre will set them back £45. The number of potholes around Stoke-on-Trent is just getting silly.”
The most complaints about Stoke-on-Trent’s potholes were lodged in May when 658 drivers complained, followed by 647 in December. Council staff repaired 1,901 potholes in January, 2012.
Elsewhere, Staffordshire County Council repaired 17,881 potholes in 2012 following 6,470 complaints.
Cheshire East Council received 2,000 pothole complaints in the first three weeks of this year.
Delivery driver Andrew Lloyd, of Festival Heights, has lodged a claim against the council after his Ford Focus was damaged.
The 30-year-old said: “There are potholes all over the place.”
In the survey only 10% of those polled rated their local roads very good or excellent, with the lowest ratings going to Scotland and Yorkshire and Humberside.
Drivers in Northern Ireland, Wales and London reported roads to be in best condition, but even there, more than 50% of respondents only rated them as fair.
When asked whether the condition of local roads was better or worse than a year ago, 50% said it was worse with 14% saying much worse. Only 9% said road conditions were better than a year ago and 40% said they were about the same.
In north-east England, 59% said conditions were worse, while those saying the roads had improved were greatest in Wales (13%) and London (12%).
AA members in Scotland were most likely to report pothole damage to their cars, with 44% saying their vehicles had suffered damage.
Neil Greig, the director of policy and research at the Institute of Advanced Motorists, blamed the poor road conditions on tight budgets and severe weather.
"The make-do-and-mend approach to potholes means most patches are simply opening up again and again as the weather veers from snow and ice to rain," he said.
Has your car been damaged by a pothole? Send your pictures to chris.hogg@northcliffedigital.co.uk, upload them straight to www.thisisstaffordshire.co.uk or tweet us on @thisisstaffs.
14 Comments
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by mowcopman
Friday, March 15 2013, 10:22AM
“It's all well and good filling holes but more often than not the workmanship is so poor that it fails very quickly. I have witnessed cold tar literally being thrown in a hole with a spade then patted down by foot. This is not a sensible longer term approach. All that happens is you end up with an inversed pot hole in the road and then the tar falls out after a few days. It's an utter waste of time, money and natural resources.
More money urgently needs to be invested in the roads to bring them up to standard. The £4m spend on paving Hanley with granite would have been far better spent on repairing the roads in the city. The councils locally need to stop wasting their money on vanity and focus on basic infrastructure, spend decent money and ensure that the work is carried out to a higher standard. Far too much money has been wasted on poor quality repairs and even so called preventative treatments have proved to be a total failure near where I live and have left the roads in a worse condition than before.”
by bobble1956
Thursday, March 14 2013, 9:14PM
“I have also used fixmystreet.com and reported the trench at the top of Nile Street in Burslem where the cobbles have sunk. I have also reported this by phone on more than one occasion. Result? Nothing done. However what using fix my street does do is create a paper trail so if your vehicle sustains damage as a result of a previously reported road defect then claiming should be easier.”
by valeforever
Thursday, March 14 2013, 8:06PM
“I went on to a website called "Fix my Street", reported the pothole in our street. Got an email back the next day promising to fix it. True to their word the pothole was fixed, it was a little bit later than they said, but we had a lot of snow in between.
But I agree that some potholes are that bad they knock you sick when you drive over them.”
by sikaPetaHi
Thursday, March 14 2013, 5:45PM
“'hole'y smoke...the council get 3rd party firms to PATCH up the roads thats why holes everywhere.....broken britain....a broken society...a broken nation....r.i.p uk”
by labour-len
Thursday, March 14 2013, 5:08PM
“I've just had my insurance renewal and it has gone up, when I contacted the insurers to why it had raised so much, I was told that Stoke on Trent was identified as one of the worst areas country wide as having some of the worst "weather treatment programmes" (ie gritting) which they said was an additional risk an therefore it had been reflected in the premium. The other reason I was told was that the pot holes has caused damage to cars tyres, wheels, cracking windscreens etc etc, and that too had been taken into account (told the additional workload of processing claims and attempting to get the money back from councils).
Well done Stoke council really showing the quality of infrastructure to your outside investors.
PS Council - my claim for the insurance increase that my insurers have clearly identified as being due to your lack of any maintenance.”
by bobble1956
Thursday, March 14 2013, 3:54PM
“A few weeks ago I spoke to a workman who was in the process of patching up a pothole he told me and I quote"We can only do the ones they tell us to do. There are more people in the office than out here doing the job"
Personally I have been a long term advocate of velocity patching (google it) which is a more permanent solution.”
by buster29
Thursday, March 14 2013, 3:46PM
“A novel idea for the department for transport, try using all the money raised through the car tax as it is supposed to be used, for the roads instead of using it to prop up every other department.”
by buster29
Thursday, March 14 2013, 3:45PM
“A novel idea for the department for transport, try using all the money raised through the car tax as it is supposed to be used, for the roads instead of using it to prop up every other department.”
by buster29
Thursday, March 14 2013, 3:45PM
“A novel idea for the department for transport, try using all the money raised through the car tax as it is supposed to be used, for the roads instead of using it to prop up every other department.”
by mrdoulton
Thursday, March 14 2013, 3:03PM
“Stoke on Trent twined with Gambia . as may pot holes as a tin pot African state”