North East and North Yorkshire areas with the most potholes

Fill That Hole is a website delivered by Cycling UK, a charity that supports cyclists and promotes bicycle use.

The website ranks highway authorities according to hazards reported through FillThatHole.org.uk and shows which authorities are best at fixing their road defects and reporting back to them.

One of the potholes in North Yorkshire

Based on the data, North Yorkshire not only receives the most road hazard reports, but according to the website, they are also the worst at fixing them with just 21 per cent of reported hazards fixed.

North Yorkshire currently has 2,365 reported hazards with 1,835 of them still being open and yet to be fixed.

Some of the hazards were reported as recently as November.

According to the site, 502 of the road hazards have been fixed scoring North Yorkshire a percentage fixed of just 21 per cent.

However, Nigel Smith, Head of Highway Operations at North Yorkshire County Council stressed that the county was England’s largest county with 5,753 miles of roads.

He added: “Our teams work hard throughout the year to maintain a safe, efficient road network.

“Keeping our roads in the best condition for the money that we have available is one of our biggest priorities, as well as challenges we face.

One of the potholes in North Yorkshire

“We have an annual highways maintenance budget of around £55 million which covers planned maintenance programmes as well as responding to problems as they arise.

“Our aim is to maximise the amount of planned maintenance work whilst ensuring safety by fixing potholes or other defects.

“All reported potholes are inspected and, if necessary, repaired promptly based on the level of risk to road users.

“It’s important to remember that repairing potholes is only one part of our wider programme of road maintenance works.

“We encourage members of the public to report potholes or other highway faults using our online reporting system at www.northyorks.gov.uk/potholes-and-road-condition-issues."

One of the potholes in North Yorkshire

Durham comes in second with 747 reported hazards, however, just four of these are open with 606 of them being closed and fixed, scoring it 99 per cent fixed.

Paul Watson, Durham County Council’s strategic highways manager, said the council “endeavour to repair defects as quickly as possible.”

He added: “County Durham covers an area of over 223,000 hectares and we maintain almost 8,000km of footways and carriageways spread across a large geographical area.

“When potholes are reported we endeavour to repair defects as quickly as possible, although due to the location of the defect or weather conditions it is sometimes not possible to address the repair as quickly as we would like.

One of the potholes in Durham that has now been fixed

“Last year we received 3,573 reports of carriageway potholes, resulting in 6,062 pothole repairs.

“In addition we also completed 42,917 carriageway pothole repairs identified via our routine highway safety inspections.

“Our figures for repairing potholes are comparable with other North East councils.”

Coming in third is Newcastle with 588 reported hazards, zero of those are open and 418 of them fixed, given Newcastle a fix percentage of 100 per cent.

Darlington comes in fourth 466 total reports, two of them are open and 412 have been fixed also giving them a fix percentage of 100 per cent.

Councillor Andy Keir, Darlington cabinet member for local services, said that residents had made it clear the condition of the roads is one of their top priorities so they “committed extra funding and resources to tackle potholes each year.”

One of the potholes in Darlington that has now been fixed

He said: “Darlington residents have made it clear that the condition of the roads in the borough is one of their top priorities, so we’ve committed extra funding and resources to tackling potholes each year, as well as carrying out preventative work, and I’m pleased to see that effort is paying off.

“We spent almost £270,000 in 2020/21 on a total 5,942 pothole repairs, which included those reported to us by the public as well as those picked up on routine inspections.

“Reports from the public are a huge help in keeping on top of the problem and give us chance to respond to problem areas in a timely fashion.

“Anyone can report a pothole – or indeed several other issues including anti-social behaviour, flytipping and broken street lights – quickly and easily by visiting www.darlington.gov.uk/reportit”

Sunderland came in fifth with 418 total reports, zero of those are open and 306 have been fixed giving sunderland a fix percentage of 100 per cent.

Redcar and Cleveland came in sixth with 146 total reports, zero of those are open and 117 had been successfully fixed giving them a fix percentage of 100 per cent.

Stockton-on-Tees came in seventh with 131 total reports, one open report and 96 fixed reports giving them a fix percentage of 99 per cent.

Middlesbrough cam eighth 100 total reports, zero of them open and 82 fixed giving them a fix percentage of 100 per cent.

Coming in last is Hartlepool with just 50 total reports, 0 of them open and 44 of them fixed, giving them a fix percentage of 100 per cent.

A Hartlepool Borough Council spokesman said: “We take a very proactive approach to highway maintenance and operate a comprehensive inspection regime, and this enables us to respond effectively to highway defects. We are very pleased that this is reflected in these results.”

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