The number of potholes on England’s local roads has increased 32 per cent over the last year, a report showed today.

On average, there is now one hole every 120 yards of road, with £8.5 billion needed to bring the condition of roads up to scratch, the report from Asphalt Industry Alliance said.

It will take 13 years to clear the pothole backlog in England – and 15.6 years in Wales, the report added.

But Shropshire Council, which maintains a network of more than 5,000 kilometres, has not seen such a big rise.

Last year more than £700,000 – about six per cent of the Shirehall’s £11 million highways structural maintenance budget – was spent on filling in potholes.

Chris Edwards, the council’s assistant director for environmental maintenance, sa- id today there had not been a significant rise. Main roads were inspected monthly.

“Obviously the unusually hard winter has meant there has been some increase in the number of potholes but they are dealt with very quickly,” said Mr Edwards.

“Our duty is to keep the highways safe for the travelling public and that is what we are doing through regular inspections and filling in potholes promptly.”

The AIA report said council highways departments had to cope with the intrusion of almost two million deep trenches dug into the roads for utility and other service provisions works.

This was reducing the lifespan of the roads and often resulted in potholes.

The number of trenches in each English local authority area averaged 13,212, while the figure for Wales was 4,613.

Almost 800,000 potholes were filled on English local roads last year and almost 94,000 were filled in Wales.

The average cost to fill one pothole is £65 and it would cost £47 million per local authority to clear the problem.

AIA chairman Mike Linley said money should be found to pay for the work – creating jobs as a bonus.

“Much of the £6 billion expenditure on roads announced by the Government in January has been allocated to projects that may not see the light of day for six years, if at all,” he said.

“Highway maintenance work provides the ‘shovel-ready’ projects the Government is looking for to stimulate the economy.”

By Dave Morris