Shropshire MPs' column - the latest from the county's representatives in Westminster
Read the latest column from the MP for The Wrekin, Mark Pritchard.
With frequent cold nights and heavy rain, winter is peak pothole season in Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin, and across the country.
Potholes cause damage to cars and pose a serious threat to cyclists and motorcyclists, especially on narrow, unlit country roads or when hidden under standing water.
For drivers, the average vehicle repair bill after hitting a pothole is £320, with some motorists paying more than £1,000 last year, according to government figures.
Burst tyres, damaged suspensions and misaligned wheels are common complaints. Cars swerving across the road to avoid potholes are a common sight.
This can be a real hazard. I cannot remember a year when so many constituents have contacted me about the state of local roads.
Complaints have been received, amongst others, from Wellington, Newport and Shifnal, and other areas such as High Ercall and Hodnet.
With many minor roads having not been resurfaced for a decade or more, and patch repairs sometimes failing within weeks or months, The Wrekin constituency's local road network is developing defects faster than they are being fixed.
Following its latest annual road maintenance survey, the Asphalt Industry Alliance estimated the backlog of potholes on Britain’s roads would cost £17 billion to fix.
If that figure is even close to the truth, then the Government’s promise to find an extra £2 billion for potholes by the end of the decade looks woefully inadequate.
In 2023, the previous Conservative Government announced significant new funding to help Shropshire Council and Telford & Wrekin Council to repair local roads - all paid for with savings delivered by the decision to cancel HS2 Phase 2.
Indeed, at that time the Department for Transport confirmed that Shropshire Council would receive an additional £153 million between 2023/24 and 2033/34, and that Telford & Wrekin Council would receive an extra £32 million over the same period.
Shropshire Council reports it has filled just over 20,000 potholes in the last nine months.
Given that the council filled more than 41,000 potholes in the 12 months of 2023, it appears the pace of repairs across Shropshire is dropping off when it needs to be picking up.
Both local councils need an urgent potholes action plan to tackle the backlog.
With their budgets increasingly stretched to meet the demands of social care, councils will need to be more creative when it comes to maintaining roads - moving away from short-term ‘whack-a-mole’ pothole patching to longer-term preventative measures, improving drainage systems, and the use of new technology to identify, prioritise and repair damaged sections of road, and using new and advanced road surface materials.
The number of local potholes is unacceptable.
