Cheshire East Council has “refuted” widely reported figures that 17,197 potholes are waiting to be filled across the borough.
The authority said there were just 550 “defects” and that the much higher figure, based on data from fixmystreet.com, was due to a “discrepancy” in the way potholes reports appeared on the website.
Last week the “Chronicle”, as well as other news outlets across the country, reported on the analysis by insurance company Tempcover, which had found that based on the fixmystreet.com data, 69 local authorities each have more than 1,000 potholes waiting to be repaired.
But Cheshire East was way out in front, with 17,191 active pothole reports.
Closest to this figure was Hertfordshire County Council, which had 12,650 open pothole reports, followed by Essex County Council with 11,190.
The analysis had also found that a pothole in Cheshire East remains unfilled having first been reported on 9th March 2020.
But despite many roads in the Cheshire East area being pockmarked with potholes and with reports, some carried in the “Chronicle”, about tyres bursting as vehicles are driven over them, Cheshire East refuted the nationally-reported figures.
Coun Mark Goldsmith, chair of Cheshire East Council’s Highways and Transport Committee, said: “Thankfully, Cheshire East does not have 17,197 potholes as incorrectly reported in a recent national newspaper. Instead, at the time of this article appearing, we had 550 defects. This is across a network of almost 1,680 miles (2,700km).
“Last year, we fixed over 35,000 potholes, and the 550 represent a normal number that we could expect to be assessing. There will of course always be enquiries in the system waiting to be processed but we believe the discrepancy is due to the way reports have been showing on Fix My Street.”
Coun Goldsmith said Cheshire East will be using a new format for reporting potholes in future.
“The council will soon be moving away from Fix My Street though and will be launching a new online tool. It will allow residents to easily report a wider variety of issues like potholes, fallen trees, abandoned vehicles and fly-tipping within their community. It will also more accurately record the number of potholes we have, too.
“More details will be announced about this in the coming weeks.”
He added: “We absolutely understand the frustration that potholes cause to our residents though and we’re working effectively to tackle them and are currently putting together our investment programme for 2025/26.
“We’re not alone in facing this challenge, with councils across the country battling with this same issue.
“We are using our limited budgets in the best possible way and ensuring that investment made on repairing roads is done using the right treatment, at the right place, at the right time.”
