Pothole numbers plummet across Lancashire as 'more filled in for same cost'

The number of defects on Lancashire’s roads and pavements has dropped by more than 25,000 over the last year.

Figures from Lancashire County Council show that the tally of faults awaiting repair – which includes potholes – had fallen to 35,514 in September 2025, down from 61,063 when the same snapshot was taken 12 months earlier.

The authority’s Reform UK administration, which took control at County Hall in May this year, has attributed the 42 percent reduction to a wholesale revamp in the approach being taken to fixing carriageway faults

The county council – which is responsible for almost all non-motorway routes across Lancashire, except in Blackpool and Blackburn with Darwen – switched in June to employing a single company to carry out its routine pothole patch-ups.

Cabinet member for highways and transport Warren Goldsworthy told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) that the new arrangement had brought down the cost of repairs – from up to £150 per square metre under the various day rates charged by the multiple contactors the authority previously used – to £95.

“What that means is, I can [fix] a third more potholes for the same money,” he said.

One of the biggest changes residents would notice as a result, County Cllr Goldsworthy explained, was that clusters of potholes in close proximity to each other were now being filled in one visit – and were guaranteed to last for at least a year.

The average repair area for each defect has tripled – and now amounts six square metres, compared to two square metres just 12 months ago.

“The electorate would be really confused when we went and did a pothole and within five feet there were four other potholes [that were left unattended].

“But the important thing is we [also now] do permanent repairs. We don’t want to go back to them – and the contract stipulates that [there is] a 12-month guarantee on [the work].

“So that old thing of potholes lasting five [or] six weeks and being broken up – and really making [people wonder] why have we bothered to do that in the first place – [is] gone,” County Cllr Goldsworthy said.

The occasional use of a technique known as “blobbing” – which saw tar poured into potholes with little by way of the preparation needed to ensure a lasting fix – has also now been completely abandoned.

During the 2024/25 financial year, which ended in April, a total of just under 115,000 road and pavement defects were dealt with across the county council area – a 52 percent increase over a five-year period.

The authority has previously blamed increasingly wet winters on the crumbling condition of the roads come spring time each year – particularly in 2024 when highways bosses noted that the network had been “saturated” for around six months.

Meanwhile, the single repair contract now in place – with Blackburn-based Multevo – has also seen a new piece of kit deployed in the battle against bumpy roads.

It works by recycling existing material from within a pothole in order to fix it – a technique that county council leader Stephen Atkinson told the LDRS removes “the join” between new and old, which is the element of a repair most likely to fail when the different surfaces do not properly bond.

Under the new system, the authority’s own in-house team continue to carry out the most urgent pothole repairs, as well as being responsible for planned road maintenance, like the county’s annual resurfacing programme.

In the latter endeavour, highways chiefs are now being assisted by new AI-powered cameras, mounted on county council vehicles as they undertake what were previously snail’s-pace assessments of road surfaces across Lancashire.

“Every single journey, they’re learning,” County Cllr Goldsworthy said.

“Instead of officers going around at 12mph – for which there obviously is a place – we can do entire road networks at normal speed. That’s making a tremendous difference.

“[In] the last couple of weeks, we’ve gone to high definition cameras – [so they are] going to be even more accurate.”

To complement the improving condition of the roads in its patch, Lancashire County Council says it has also got tough with the utilities companies whose tailback-causing roadworks often leave motorists riled.

The authority has doubled the number of fixed penalty notices it issues to firms that fail to adhere to the rules laid down in the permits that they have to obtain in order to carry out street works – such as manually operating temporary traffic lights at peak times to respond to delays. A total of 639 fines were handed out for such breaches between the start of May and the end of October this year – up 90 percent from the 337 issued during the same period last year.

There has also been a 66 percent increase in fixed penalties dished out for over-running roadworks, which go on beyond the date they were due to finish – rising from 163 over the same May-October timeframe in 2024 to 271 during the equivalent period this year.

“Nothing infuriates a driver more than being stuck behind barriers and [there being] nobody inside them,” County Cllr Goldsworthy said.

“We want [the companies] to know that it actually matters – and that if they say [a job] is going to be finished on Thursday and it’s not finished until the following Tuesday, then somebody does care, because the residents are suffering with that.”