Potholes map rates council road repair progress

Using a new mapping device and traffic light rating system, drivers in England will be able to see how local authorities are treating roads choked with potholes. Thirteen local authorities, including Cumberland, Bolton, Kensington and Chelsea, Bedford, Bedfordshire, North Lincolnshire, and Derbyshire, have been given a red rating based on the condition of their roads and how efficiently they are spending government funds to carry out repairs. The Department for Transport (DfT) map's Essex, Wiltshire, Coventry, Leeds, and Darlington are among the departments that have been granted a green light on the Department for Transportation Drivers had been left to pay the bill for too long, according to Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander.

People were

fed up of driving to work and striking the same pothole day after day,

according to Laura Kuenssberg of the BBC, with drivers paying hundreds of pounds for

needless trips to the garage. The government was giving councils more money to maintain roads, but she said that it was

fully vital

that the public have a way to see what is going on with the funds. The government committed £7. The next four years will see a 3 billion investment in roads fix them in November's Budget. Based on road conditions and how well they were using government funds, the DFT rated154 local highway authorities as red, amber, or green. The overwhelming majority of people were classified as amber, indicating that they were patching up roads and had preventative steps in place, but there was still room for improvement. Derbyshire, which was once rated the

pothole capital of the United Kingdom,

received the lowest road repair costs. The RAC discovered in December that Derbyshire had received the highest number of claims for pothole compensation between 2021 and 2024. According to Charlotte Hill, the council's cabinet member for potholes, highways, and transportation had dropped by 72% since May 2025. To help them grow, councils that have been rated red will receive additional funding, including an additional £300,000 each. Future funding will be

related to success,

according to the government, in an effort to encourage councils to use

taxpayer funds more effectively to rebuild and maintain their roads before potholes appear. No data had been collected on potholes before, nor had there been a formal definition of one, so the government was gathering data in a way that hadn't been done before, Alexander said. According to Sky News, the map assessed areas based on three factors: the road's condition, the level of investment being made, and the extent to which the local authority was "using best practices and providing value for money.

According to the RAC, the UK is expected to have more than one million potholes, resulting in 25,758 incidents in 2025. According to the RAC, contaminated roads result in scores of serious injuries, accidents, and breakdowns every year. According to the motoring corporation, drivers pay an average of £590 for pothole injuries, but others are out of pocket by more than £1,000. Damaged shock absorbers, cracked suspension springs, and bent wheels are all typical vehicle problems caused by potholes.

The

increase in funding, according to Tom Hunt, chair of the Local Government Association's Inclusive Growth Committee, is a welcome step in the right direction.

He said that councils had a £17 billion backlog of road repairs, and that long-term funding certainty and preventative steps could save taxpayers' money and reduce the need for repairs.