'This is a national crisis' - £22.5m boost to repair potholes on Hampshire roads

Hampshire County Council are to spend a further £7.5 million a year for the next three years to fix thousands more potholes

Hampshire County Council have revealed they are spending a further £7.5 million a year for the next three years to fix thousands more potholes.

Backing for the upkeep of the county’s roads was given at the meeting of the full county council - recognising the importance of good roads for residents’ quality of life and for the local economy.

Council leader Rob Humby said: “As we are all too aware, a challenging winter of prolonged wet and freezing weather, along with many years of insufficient national funding for highway maintenance, have taken their toll on the local road network in Hampshire, and indeed throughout the UK.

"This is a national crisis, which I and the leaders of other South East Councils are urging the Prime Minister to address.

“In the meantime, we currently spend around £13.5 million on reactive pothole and road defect repairs each year.

"Hampshire’s highways teams are continuing to do an excellent job of repairing potholes, and other road defects, to keep our network in a safe and serviceable condition using the limited resources that they have.

"Hampshire is one of England’s largest counties with over 5,000 miles of roads and with widespread damage still evident, the need for structural repairs remains high.

“There is no quick fix to this longstanding issue, but our teams are fixing road defects at a record rate.

"In June, nearly 10,000 potholes and other problems were repaired. But we must go further, faster, and I’m pleased that this £22.5 million three-year programme will enable more localised road repairs.

"This additional funding will mean we can step up our resources so that road defects can be fixed more quickly by changing our approach to repairs and using new, innovative repair treatments and processes.

“I would like to take this opportunity to ask residents to keep using the county council’s online system to report potholes, so that they can be logged by our teams and scheduled for repair as soon as possible.”

Hitting a pothole, or even swerving to avoid one, can ruin a car's suspension, steering or tyres, according to the AA. In extreme cases they can cause serious accidents.

In 2018, the AA estimated potholes cost drivers and insurance companies an eye-watering £12 million.

It said at the time: "The pothole epidemic has become nothing short of a national disgrace."