Britain's pothole nightmare as damaged road costing economy £14billion a year

The Mirror can reveal that the problem of potholes - which costs the economy £14bn a year - has recently spread to motorways, traditionally better maintained than country roads

Britain's potholed roads are killing drivers while costing the British economy a staggering £14 billion a year.

A new report being presented to Government will show the AA dealt with 631,852 pothole-related incidents in 2023, the highest for five years. A total of 118 cyclists were killed or serious injured in four years due to defective road surfaces - mainly potholes often filled in with water after heavy rain making them invisible.

The Mirror can reveal that the problem of potholes has recently spread to motorways, traditionally better maintained than country roads. A picture last week showed a section of the M25 around London where 58 vehicles - many of them lined up on the hard shoulder with hazards on - were damaged by a massive pothole.

But a very similar incident took place days earlier at junction 5 in lane 2 of the M4 when over 20 cars were damaged. One driver of a Mercedes EQA, left with a £1,280 bill, said: “It was a massive hole. There were 20 or so other vehicles in the same situation.”

Edmund King, AA president, said: “One motorway massive pothole taking out twenty cars and creating totally carnage is bad enough but two motorway incidents in the space of a few days is unheard of. It is just lucky that nobody got hurt. No doubt many of these drivers will be seeking compensation from National Highways.

“The Government knows all road users are fed up with potholes. It is costing drivers a fortune but tragically costing lives for those on two wheels.” The six people who were killed between 2018-22 were all cyclists but another 333 incidents have caused deaths or injury to car drivers and motorcyclists during the same period.

Campaign group the Pothole Partnership - the AA, British Cycling, the National Motorcyclists Council and JCB - want the Government to act. They claim local councils have had to pay out almost £23 million to riders and drivers whose cars or bikes have suffered punctures or damaged wheels, steering and suspension.

They also claim anecdotal evidence shows local authorities are hiring private contractors who used cheap fillers which are torn up by the first passing bus or lorry. The contractor then gets paid a second time to repair the same pothole again.

The economic damage done by potholes is damage to vehicles, accidents and reduced speeds, road users having to drive more slowly or congestion that is pothole related. Combined with increase global emissions caused by slowing down and speeding up, the group arrived at a total annual economic cost to the country of £14. 4 billion.

A survey of 11,000 AA members showed that repairing roads properly was the major concern for British drivers. The Pothole Partnership is calling on the Government to use cutting edge technology to “smooth the road ahead” by devising a country-wide strategy to fix potholes. Among their objectives is for potholes to be permanently fixed and not "patched", all contractors are forced to work to a UK-wide standard and for the Government to allocate more money to fix the roads.