Wet weather blamed for Lancashire pothole repair delays

A £15.2m road-resurfacing scheme will be rolled out in Lancashire in 2024

The wet winter has been blamed for a backlog of pothole repairs on Lancashire's roads.

A county hall spokesperson said the area is experiencing "significant and unprecedented reports of structural defects" on its highways.

He said in some areas groundwater is forcing repair material out of repaired holes.

And he noted that it had rained on 71 of the last 93 days in Lancashire.

Recently released figures indicate Lancashire County Council missed its target for potholes repair at the end of last year.

However, a £15.2m road-resurfacing scheme will be rolled out in 2024.

Lancashire's cabinet member for highways Rupert Swarbrick said: "Fixing potholes on wet days isn't good and it makes our job very difficult to do.

"We are catching up now and this last week has seen a significant amount of additional activity. So you'll find over the next few weeks, as the weather dries up, we will be catching up with the backlog."

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In the three months to December, the authority filled in 70 per cent of highway defects classed as urgent within two days - but the target was 90 per cent.

Meanwhile, 83 per cent of non-urgent issues were put right within 10 days, against a 90 per cent target.

However, the county council did manage to repair 99 per cent of defects assessed as needing "emergency" attention within four hours, which is the target.

It has been reported that £10m has been set aside for repairing potholes and defects as they appear - although that budget could be exceeded to meet the authority's safety commitment to fix all potholes deeper than 40mm.

The works are part of county hall's £32.4m highways maintenance grant from the government for 2024-25. £5.6m has been reserved for bridge repairs.