Road chiefs respond after Lancaster Guardian presses them on need for Lancaster and Morecambe pothole action

A Lancaster Guardian article in January prompted a flurry of criticism of the state of our roads.

It followed a question we posed on our Facebook pages and we were inundated with responses.

You can look at it here: 10 pothole hotspots across Lancaster and Morecambe as chosen by readers

As a result we’ve pressed Lancashire County Council, who are responsible for road maintenance in the county, to see what they are doing to rectify the problem.

They have said they are getting extra contractors in to carry out repairs, focusing on residential streets for pothole repairs and doing mini-resurfacing schemes.

Here is the full statement that Lancashire County Council issued to the Lancaster Guardian:

County Councillor Scott Smith, lead member for highways and transport, said: “Mid-winter is always the worst time of the year for potholes, as they're caused by wet and cold weather, and the particularly wet end to 2023, followed by the freezing conditions early this year, means that our roads have suffered a lot of damage in recent weeks.

“We have engaged extra contractors to add to the resources available to our highways teams, and they're working hard to repair the damage caused by the weather as quickly as possible.

“We're continuing to carry out our regular inspections to ensure as far as possible that we identify and repair any issues promptly before they become a risk, however potholes can go from being a small defect to becoming a much bigger one very quickly in the current conditions and I'd ask people to help us by reporting them.

“We prioritise repairs according to risk, with some being repaired within 4 hours, and others within target times up to 20 working days, and our highways teams have been working really hard to meet them during what has been a very challenging period.

“A big focus of our annual maintenance programme is making the right treatment at the right time in the lifecycle of a road before more expensive repairs are needed, however part of it does involve replacing worn-out surfaces. All of this is decided on the basis of survey data which we use to prioritise which roads most need investment in a particular year.

“An increasingly important part of our highways maintenance strategy is to tackle areas where the road surface is deteriorating, leading to repeated pothole repairs, by carrying out mini-resurfacing schemes to ensure these problems are resolved, and we're investing around £3.2m in these in the current year.

“We're also using £1.9m of the extra funding we received at the end of 2023 as part of the government's Network North plans on priority drainage improvements to reduce the impact which prolonged wet spells have on the condition of our roads.

“I'd ask people to report any highways issues to us using the Love Clean Streets app, via our website or by calling our customer service centre, so that we can carry out prompt inspections and repairs.”