Prolonged wet weather has seen the county request 4,962 fixes across the first two months of this year, almost triple the 1,678 raised across the same period in 2025. 

A Warwickshire County Council director has insited crude short-term pothole fixes are a necessary evil – despite agreeing that complaints about them are "justified".

Director of highways Richard Fenwick described "a difficult few months" with more than 30 gangs working seven days a week for most of the period since Christmas to try to play catch-up.

Last week he told the county's communities overview and scrutiny committee – a panel of councillors that oversees and makes recommendations on areas of the council's work – that for the sake of speed and hazard mitigation more than half of current repairs involve little more than a dollop of tarmac for the time being, acknowledging that some break away within a matter of days. 

But while he knows that is far from ideal, the realities of staying on top of the problem make for a "tough choice". 

"Doing it right first time is best for value for money and means fewer revisits but the permanent saw-cut fixes take significantly longer to do," he said. 

"We have to choose between getting there in time to try to save people's wheels from being broken or worse, even though we know we might have to go back, or leaving the hole there for longer with those gangs (doing the spot fixes) taking at least twice as long to do permanent repairs."

The county has a backlog of 1,624 permanent repairs, including revisits to those quick fixes, but Mr Fenwick is hopeful that will come down as weather improves. 

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"The road network certainly hasn't got that much worse in one year, it is very much down to the weather conditions with a few freezes in between," he said. 

The temporary fix sees hot tarmac stuck in the hole as it is, while a permanent patch involves cutting into the road and removing debris under the right conditions before filling it and pressing into the road surface.

The council aims to keep temporary fixes to between 10 and 20 per cent of overall jobs with Mr Fenwick noting that the current rate of 56 per cent was "not where we want to be".

"There will always be situations, particularly where it is a really weak road, where getting a machine out and cutting into it will make the rest of the road weaker and deteriorate," added Mr Fenwick. 

"Sometimes it is not sensible to spend more money on permanent repairs that will be done even better (through wider planned works) afterwards.

"We are in a time of needs-must and we don't always get that right.

"Sometimes they fail within a few days rather than a few weeks but the insurance claims, damage or injury that can come from not responding as fast as we can to make it safe is something that has to be considered against leaving it a bit longer for the gangs to do permanent repairs all the time."