Drivers demand action to fill in potholes across Hampshire

They expressed their frustration with the growing numbers of potholes and pinpointed problem areas such as Purbrook Hill, Milton and the A27.

Carl Cox, 46, from Havant said: ‘There are so many of them. It all needs to be ripped up and resurfaced. Repairing them is no good, it just gets knocked out again.

‘Just go up Purbrook Way and over the hill. Right by the car wash it’s riddled with them. It’s just ridiculous. The council seriously needs to do sort it out.’

Commuters also spoke of their misery when travelling on the A27 which has become littered with holes despite a £500,000 resurfacing project in 2015. The road is once again in dire need of repair.

Horsham-based Gabriele Ciaglia, 67, said: ‘Compared to the north it is really bad. Normally I work in Guildford, in Reading, in London but nothing like the A27 on the way back here. If there’s a deep hole and the tyre goes in it can cause you an accident.’

This comes after recent figures, provided by Cycling UK, revealed more than £1m of taxpayers’ cash has been paid in compensation to Hampshire motorists due to potholes.

The majority of this total came from Hampshire County Council, which shelled out £891,847 between 2013 and 2017 to cover damage to vehicles and injuries. This included £113,568 to cyclists alone. In total, both the county council and Southampton City Council spent £1.27m on compensation and legal costs.

Portsmouth City Council has yet to release the figures but it did reveal that in the past five years four cyclists and 11 motorists had successfully claimed compensation from the authority due to potholes.

The council’s highways performance manager, Deepu Prabhakaran, said: ‘These statistics show that the number of claims made due to potholes in the city is low compared to other councils of a similar size and we hope that this shows how seriously we take our responsibility as the highways authority.’

In comparison Hampshire County Council paid out to 2,340 motorists and 26 cyclists over the same years.

A county council spokesperson said: ‘Because Hampshire is one of the largest counties with many more miles of road to look after than most, it is inevitable that the number of pothole claims is larger than those in a smaller authority.

‘The council remains committed to providing well maintained roads, and to minimising pothole numbers, always looking for efficient, value for money and innovative ways to look after Hampshire’s roads.’