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County Council marks National Pothole Day with a call to action

Published
Winter has been busy doing what winter does best – throwing ice, rain and freezing temperatures at our roads. And while we can’t control the weather, we can work together to tackle the potholes it leaves behind.

Thursday 15 January is National Pothole Day, and Gloucestershire County Council is using the occasion to shine a spotlight on FixMyStreet – our quick and easy online tool for reporting potholes. 

Even though our highways teams regularly inspect all county roads, potholes can still appear almost overnight at this time of year. That’s why we’re asking residents to help be our eyes on the ground and report any new damage as soon as they spot it. 

Once a pothole is logged, our inspectors head out to assess the safety risk. The most serious issues can be repaired within two hours, and smaller problems are usually fixed within 28 days. 

So far this financial year, we’ve carried out 51,828 minor road repairs – most of them potholes. And when our crews fix one, they don’t stop there: they proactively tackle nearby issues too, resulting in 7,638 additional potholes repaired. 

Resurfacing remains our long-term priority. This year, we’re planning to resurface more than 200 roads across the county including surface dressing and patching schemes. We’ll be making full use of the government’s multi-year highways maintenance funding settlement (announced in the Budget), and we’re also investing an extra £15 million to improve local roads and drainage. 

Cllr Joe Harris, Cabinet Member for Highways, said: “Pothole season is here and the icy winter weather has had a big impact on our roads. We act quickly to fix the biggest potholes, so please do report any that have sprung up near you using FixMyStreet. Resurfacing is the best long-term fix, so we’re busy laying new road surfaces across the county – and when spring arrives and the roads are drier, we’ll be ramping up our operations with specialist machines to make long lasting repairs. We’re working to fix our roads and keep Gloucestershire moving.”