About the service

When you report a pothole, it is inspected within 3 working days and a repair will be planned as set out in our Highway Safety Inspection Manual. In some cases, we may do a temporary repair and a permanent repair will be carried out within 28 days.

Please give us as much information as possible that will help our inspector find the pothole or road defect. The more information you give us, the easier it will be for us to find. Please tell us:

• Your name and phone number, in case we need to contact you
• Where the pothole or road defect is, including post code, road name and parish
• If the pothole or defect outside a specific property. For example, outside Number 4, or near lamp column number 27

If you have already reported a problem, you can check the status of your report using your reference number on our report status page.

Reporting a problem outside of our hours

If you need to report a problem outside of our normal working hours (Monday to Friday 8.30am to 5pm) and you believe it is urgent and a risk to public safety, please phone 0300 123 2224.

About potholes, road damage and edge loss

A pothole happens when the surface of a road or footpath has been worn away and a hollow forms.

As the road surface ages, it becomes more porous, and rainwater gets in through cracks. In wet weather the pressure created by traffic passing over the area forces water further down into the road surface, weakening it.

In winter, as the temperature changes between freezing and thawing, there is a faster deterioration of road surfaces, because the water filling cracks freezes and expands, loosening chunks of the surface material.

Once a pothole has formed it will quickly grow as traffic continually dislodges and removes weakened and broken pieces of the surface.

Identifying potholes

Our inspectors check roads, footways and cycleways for potholes regularly. Quieter routes are inspected less often, so we ask you to help us identify and report potholes. When you report a pothole, we log it and schedule a repair where required. You can find out more about how often we carry out our inspections on our highway safety inspections page.

Edge loss

A location where there is a loss of carriageway from the line of the road edge and depth loss. ‘Channels’ at the edges of the road are getting deeper and more defined. This may be formed by carriageway edge potholes or carriageway edge depressions.

How we repair potholes

A pothole repair involves ‘cutting out’ the weakened area. The hole is then cleaned out and painted with a coat of a liquid bitumen binder which acts like a glue when the hole is filled with a hot layer of road surface material, which is then compacted.

Paint marks on the road

We make paint marks on the road to help us identify the exact spot to carry out the work. The markings used (lines, dots or letters) have no particular meaning. If a member of the public adds additional marks, this will not result in additional work being done.

How we prioritise

Pothole repairs are prioritised depending on their size and where they are. We also take into account the amount and speed of traffic using the road, and where the pothole is in the road.

As a general rule, potholes in the road that are 40mm deep will be repaired within 28 days, the same timeframe as for potholes on a footway or cycleway that are 20mm deep. These response times are reduced to 24 hours for busy A and B roads and town centres.

You can find more information about our response times in our Highway Safety Inspection Manual.