aAndrew Leach, 66, was on his way to his daughter’s netball match in Oxford in November 2021 when he hit a pothole and fell off his bike. Mr Leach lay motionless in the middle of an Oxfordshire B road for around 90 minutes before police arrived and moved him to the side of the road.
“It was approaching rush hour and I feel really lucky I wasn’t killed,” Mr Leach said, as passers-by heeded advice to wait for an ambulance. “It also revealed the current state of the ambulance service – they were clearly overwhelmed.” After three hours waiting for an ambulance, Mr Leach was taken to hospital with a broken hip from the fall.
While it was the worst accident, it was just one of many potholes that 66-year-old Leach, from Solihull, has encountered as a cyclist. “Over the last 10 years I’ve noticed a significant deterioration in road surfaces across the country,” said Mr Leach, who is retired.
A survey by the British Road Safety Council (RAC) has found that years of underinvestment have meant the number of drivers concerned about the state of Britain’s roads is at an all-time high, putting pressure on the government to improve road infrastructure. Central government funding to local authorities, who manage 98% of roads, was cut by 40% in real terms between 2010 and 2020.
Leach noticed a big difference during a recent cycling holiday in mainland Europe: “The roads are safer for everyone, they encourage an active lifestyle and they attract tourists to the region,” he said, adding that he encountered very few potholes on his 350-mile route through the Italian Alps.
Mr Leach pointed out that this is a far cry from the roads in the Lake District, one of the UK’s most naturally rich places. A sentiment echoed by local Daniel Hunter, a 56-year-old retired man from North Cumbria. “This is a national disgrace!” Mr Hunter noted that tourists visiting the area are faced with bumpy roads that are difficult to drive or ride on safely. “This is how we flaunt our status as the sixth largest economy in the world… I’m against four-wheel drives but no wonder people want them.”
“It’s gotten worse since 2010, and a lack of investment and maintenance has taken a big toll,” Hunter said, but he believes things are starting to improve in his area. “They’ve brought in machines in the last year or so to repair potholes, so you can see they’re trying.”
Mr Hunter said local road conditions had damaged his car: “This is Cumbria so a lot of the potholes are covered in water… you never know if you’re in a puddle or a hole,” he said.
He reckons he’s spent about £280 repairing potholes over the past few years – first after the front suspension of his 2004 Volkswagen Passat was damaged, then the front coils on the same car snapped. “It’s become one of the expenses of motoring – it’s like going off-roading. Who pays for the costs of not fixing the roads? The car owners.”
Like Leach, Hunter is an avid cyclist who has had to adapt as the roads in his area become increasingly dilapidated: “We used to ride road bikes and now we’re riding mountain bikes on the same roads. It’ll rattle your bones when you get home.”
Britain’s roads are particularly challenging for new drivers. Yasamin, 29, recalls her learning to drive in Cheltenham as “ridiculous”. “We kept having to fix the car, which the instructor blamed on potholes,” she says.
The actress said the March 2022 test was “total chaos,” adding: “None of the routes we’d been practising were available due to emergency paving works and we had to follow detour signs the whole time. A guy cycling ahead of us hit a pothole and fell off, so we had to do an emergency stopping drill for real!”
Last November she had to have her front tyres replaced, costing her £190 after a mechanic told her it was caused by a pothole. “I drove around the pothole but there were bulges and damage to both front tyres – both with plenty of tread left.”
Sally, an NHS doctor from Trafford, says her husband got three punctures in three weeks earlier this year, blamed on potholes. “It got so bad that we traded in for wider tyres, at both the environmental and financial cost,” says Sally, 44, explaining that she traded in her electric car for a second-hand diesel. “I would have liked to keep it but the financial risk is too great and the roads seem to be getting worse rather than better.”
In her area, roads are constantly being closed due to potholes and construction, and her children are often late for school. “It’s hard to get to work because of potholes, detours and repairs,” she said. “I report potholes almost every day.”