Potholes hit record high across Leicestershire as Iran war drives repair costs
The Iran war has been cited as a factor in Leicestershire seeing reports of potholes hitting an all-time high this winter.
The revelation came as members of Leicestershire County Council’s Corporate Governance Committee met on March 27 to review the condition of the county’s roads.
Ann Carruthers, the council’s director of environment and transport, told councillors that nearly 3,000 pothole enquiries were recorded in February alone - a 271 per cent increase on the same period two years ago.
She said a combination of population growth, “chronically” poor weather, and rising repair costs has caused the condition of roads to deteriorate “exponentially”.
She also named the ongoing war in Iran as a reason for the “short-term boom” in reports.
She said: “There’s other emerging risks - ones around the Iran war - and what that’s doing in terms of the cost of our fuel.
“The impact is even higher because the cost of oil based products has gone way up, which hits indirectly onto our highways maintenance operations.”
These pressures, Ms Carruthers said, have contributed to a 22 per cent increase in the cost of repairing potholes.
While the council has a legal duty to keep roads safe, officials acknowledged that inspections are not being complete and some are not addressed within the expected timeframe.
Due to the “sheer volume” of defects, the “vast majority” of urgent potholes are now receiving only temporary repairs - meaning further work will be required in future.
Nationally, officials estimate it would cost more than £18 billion to fully repair England’s roads.
The council is expecting to receive a £145 million pot of funding to tackle the problem. However, Ms Carruthers warned this would fall short of what is needed.
She said: “That’s great news but it still will not be enough. We will use it all. But it still won’t do what we need it to do unfortunately.”
The update comes after the council’s highways service was recently given a red rating, the lowest possible, for how much money it spends on maintaining roads.
At this time, opposition councillors raised concerns that the current Reform-led administration is failing to turn funding into visible improvements.
However, Councillor Adam Tilbury, lead member for highways and transport, said the rating reflects issues with how the council’s spending is reported.