Drivers join forces in 'pothole partnership' as AA reveals damning data reveals growing crisis

A cross-industry “pothole partnership” has been launched as damning new data reveals the cost of the nation’s growing pothole crisis.

The coalition, which has been formed by the AA, the National Motorcyclists Council, and JCB, has issued a five-point plan for government, local authorities and road repair contractors to find a permanent solution to potholes.

Representing the interests of drivers, motorcyclists, cyclists, and road repairers, the partnership is also supported by British Cycling, the road safety charity IAM RoadSmart and the British Motorcyclists Federation.

The partnership came after research from the AA found that an estimated £474m was spent in 2023 on damages from potholes.

The reveals the AA dealt with 631,852 pothole related incidents in 2023, the highest for five years and up by over 16% on 2022’s figures.

This comes after the UK Government announced that an extra £8.3b in funding will be make available to repair England’s growing pothole problem.

The partnership has welcomed the funding but issued a five-point plan calling for:

Permanent: Local authorities to limit the practice of temporary pothole repairs or patches and, where possible, every pothole or patch to be repaired permanently.

Precise: All local authorities / contractors to adhere to UK-wide repair and inspection standards, and annually report on the repairs undertaken
Price: Government to demonstrate greater urgency by accelerating and increasing spending of the £8.3bn pothole funding for England in the first three years – with total clarity on the distribution to local authorities – and devolved authorities in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland encouraged to increase spending
Provision: Central and local government to guarantee ringfencing of ALL road maintenance funding to help deliver innovations that enable permanent repairs.
Progress: Full transparency from local authorities on their roads repair backlog, categorised by potholes, patching works and road resurfacing.