An FOI request into potholes has revealed Hampshire County Council repaired just a third of the potholes reported.

A request was submitted by car leasing firm, Xcite Car Leasing, to 105 councils with 68 responding to the FOI, Hampshire County Council being one of them.

The findings of the FOI can be found at xcitecarleasing.co.uk/blog/uk-potholes-revealed.

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Potholes cause damage estimated at millions of pounds to vehicles across Hampshire every year. The problem is worst in the winter as cold weather worsens the problems and many holes are covered over by puddles.

 

The FOI request asked authorities for its budget for potholes and actual spending from April 2022 until March 2023, and the number of reported potholes and also repaired within the same period.

More than 25,000 potholes were reported to Hampshire County Council from April 2022 to March 2023, with just over 8,200 of these, or 32 per cent, being repaired. 

Hampshire County Council's budget to repair potholes was £100,100,000, with £89,844,211 spent. This means £10,255,789 of the council's budget for potholes was not spent in the 2022-23 tax year, with the cost of repairing each pothole averaging out at more than £136 per pothole.

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Councils were contacted for their budget between the dates April 6 2022 to April 5 2023. Numbers were only included where they could be certified beyond reasonable doubt and works were classified as completed. 

Despite more than 25,000 reports of potholes within the year, the figure does not take into account potholes that may have been reported by several people, and therefore does not represent an accurate representation of how many potholes were reported, and the percentage of which were repaired.

Hampshire County Council has been contacted for comment.