County Council blames 'severe weather conditions' for the 'inevitable' rise in potholes

Nottinghamshire County Council has said that “recent severe weather episodes” have made an increased number of pothole reports “inevitable”. 

The County Council’s response comes after Hucknall Central councillor Lee Waters said that a “dangerous” road in the town would not be resurfaced until 2027. 

Councillor Waters was left frustrated after being told that Beardall Street, which he claims is “by far the worst” for potholes in Hucknall, would not be resurfaced for three years. 

Earlier this month, Ashfield Independents councillor David Martin found what he believed to be the county’s ‘biggest pothole’ in Flatts Lane, Westwood. 

The pothole in question was 4ft long, 2ft wide and 20in deep. 

In response to the concerns raised by councillor Waters, Nottinghamshire County Council told Nottingham World: “Recent severe weather episodes have taken a significant toll on Nottinghamshire’s roads.”

“Severe flooding causes substantial damage to our highways, which then deteriorate further when heavy rainfall is combined with sub-zero temperatures to create a ‘freeze/thaw’ effect.  

"The freezing conditions in turn require us to grit our major road network for safety reasons, but repeated gritting can also weaken the asphalt on our highways. 

“It is therefore inevitable that we are experiencing a rise in reports of damage to our roads and pavements at this time.  

“We are battling as hard as we can against the effects of these weather events. Residents may see an increase in emergency repairs as we work to keep our highways safe throughout the winter. 

“We will still however be undertaking permanent repairs wherever we can, which residents can see at www.nottshighways.co.uk, and we will continue with large-scale patch repairs as part of our four-year Highways Improvement Plan.

“We recognise this is a really important issue, and we have secured a major new transport fund, with £1.5bn which will be controlled by the new Regional Mayor and Combined Authority. We consider this to be a big opportunity to invest in improving our roads.

“Over the past seven years we have invested an extra £40 million in road maintenance in Nottinghamshire. 

“We continue to lobby central government for more funds, as do most highways authorities across the country as they contend with similar problems.

“Where residents notice potholes, we ask that they continue to report them to us either through our website or the MyNOTTS App, after which an Inspector will attend the site as soon as possible within 10 working days to assess it for repairs – please include photos if you can, to help us prioritise. 

“There is also more information on how we manage highways for extreme weather on our website.”

Understanding the logistics

According to the Nottinghamshire County Council website, for a pothole to be considered a safety defect it must be at least 40mm deep in the road surface or 20mm deep in a footway for us to investigate and prioritise the repair. 

Providing it meets the requirements, a pothole will be prioritised for repair depending on its size, depth and road location.

Category one potholes will be repaired by the end of the next working day, although it can take up to 90 days to repair category three potholes.