How many potholes have been repaired in Preston and South Ribble this year

A pothole on Preston's roads — A pothole on Preston’s roads

Nearly 1,000 potholes have been repaired so far this year in Preston.

The figures have been released by Lancashire County Council as they launch a new system to report holes in the city’s roads.

The city has seen 950 potholes repaired and South Ribble another 1,054 filled in.

The county council changed the threshold recently for when a pothole needs to be repaired.

A hole must be 40mm deep before the council will repair them, with potholes on pavements or road crossings being 25mm deep before repair takes place.

The county council says it aims to repair them within 20 working days for a road pothole. Those on pavements and crossings could be repaired within five to 10 days.

Around 20 potholes-a-day are repaired across Lancashire.

Cabinet member for highways and transport county councillor Keith Iddon said: “Potholes are caused by cold and wet weather and wear and tear from vehicles, which means we’ll always have to deal with them, no matter how much we spend on maintaining the roads.

“We dedicate significant resources to fixing potholes, and our repair teams, who spend all day repairing them, do a really good job in all weathers to keep our roads safe.

“Our new campaign asks people to help our highways teams by taking the time to provide accurate information when they report potholes, and preferably to use the Report It function on our website.

“This is a quick and easy process where people can pinpoint the pothole on a map, and provide an approximation of its size, as well as attach photographs.

“This information allows us to quickly assess the risk it presents and decide how to prioritise it.

“Without accurate information it can be difficult to identify the issue being reported which is time-consuming for our highways teams, and potentially frustrating for whoever has made the report.”