A pothole has been filled every five minutes, every day, for 10 years in the West Midlands, but still the backlog of carriageway repairs is £1.7 billion in the region.

The figures, from this year's Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance (ALARM) survey report, spell more misery for road users with more than half (54 per cent) of the local road network – equivalent to 10,900 miles in the region – reported to have less than 15 years' structural life remaining.

David Giles, chair of the Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA), which commissions the ALARM survey, said: "Over £20 billion has been spent on carriageway maintenance in England and Wales over the last decade.

"However, due partly to the short-term nature of the allocation of funding, this has resulted in no quantifiable uplift in the condition and resilience of the network.

"In fact almost all (94 per cent) of local authority highway teams reported that, in their opinion, there has been no improvement to their local network over the last year: a view no doubt shared by the majority of road users."

The ALARM survey reports local road funding and conditions in England and Wales based on information provided directly by those responsible for the maintenance of the network.

This year's survey, the 30th, received a record 78 per cent response rate from local authorities, including 92 per cent of those in the West Midlands - including Warwickshire.

Over the past three decades ALARM has reported a repeated pattern of short-term cash injections in an effort to stem the accelerating decline in road conditions, followed by longer periods of cuts and underfunding.

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The ALARM survey also found £1.7 billion is required, as a one-off, for local authorities in the West Midlands to bring the network up to their 'ideal' conditions.

At the end of 2024 Warwickshire County Council called on locals to report potholes to help the local authority fix them as soon as possible.

Between June 2020 and November 2024, the council repaired over 22,000 potholes.

"The council remains committed to keeping roads safe and encourages residents to continue supporting road safety efforts by reporting new issues," a statement said.

It added: "The county council prioritises repairs based on risk to road users. Factors taken into account include: location of road and volume of traffic; position of defect within the road; and of course the size and depth of the defect.  

"The greater the risk to highway users, the quicker the defect will be repaired. Some are repaired within two hours, while other lower-priority repairs on less frequented roads may take up to 30 days.

"It may be decided not to repair a pothole if it is not a safety issue or severe enough to undertake a repair but the council will monitor the problem and may plan a future repair as part of our preventative treatment maintenance."

See more here.

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