Preston's roads now have more than 450 potholes

The number of potholes in Preston has almost doubled since the cold snap during the winter months.

The city now has 466 road defects, with over 200 new occurrences over the course of the first two months of the year.

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Lancashire County Councillor Keith Young, cabinet member for highways and transport, said: “We recognise that potholes are an issue and have invested an extra £9 million in funding repairs over the last financial year.”

The latest figures have sparked fears that Preston’s roads are not safe, but Councillor Young insists that the County Council has the funds to correct the roads: “We prioritise potholes that pose a danger to drivers or pedestrians and these are repaired as quickly as possible.

All available resources are working on this important task. The cost of these works is adequately covered in the highway maintenance budgets both now and going forward.”

According to the Local Government Association (LGA), it is impossible to put a timescale on repairing faulty road surfaces, or to predict the cost to the taxpayer.

A spokesperson said: “Different councils are getting money from different pots, and reallocating funds or diverting funds from other projects to fill the gap.”

Backlog

The LGA also spoke of a huge backlog of maintenance work due to the government not providing councils with the required £8.5 billion to get Britain’s roads up to scratch.

“It’s built up over a long period of time. There’s complaints that Britain’s roads aren’t as good as they should be, there’s also complaints about utilities companies digging them up and not putting them back as they were.”

“Councils are acutely aware that road users want roads that don’t have holes in them. They’ll be doing their best in the short term to patch up the worst ones, and in the long-term they’ll try and catch up with the others,” the spokesperson added.

It is estimated that there are now 2 million potholes on Britain’s roads – and experts are claiming that with a damaged piece of road every 120 yards, the repairs could take up to 15 years.

The whole of Lancashire now has 6128 potholes, a figure that has doubled since the coldest British winter in 31 years.

“Keeping the county’s roads safe is a priority and our engineers carry out regular inspections to identify any faults,” said Councillor Young.

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