Potholes on country lanes are becoming “extremely difficult” to fix due to a shortage of cash and worsening weather. Council bosses are now planning to declare a “highways emergency” and are warning some lanes could be closed this later year.
Climate change means the winters in England are wetter, colder and stormier, all of which causes potholes to form more quickly. South Gloucestershire Council is struggling to keep up with road maintenance, particularly on country lanes which previously were less of a focus.
The council only spends a third on maintaining the roads of what money is needed to keep the condition of the roads from getting worse.
At the end of last year, council bosses feared a wet, cold and stormy winter could wreak havoc on the district’s roads.
Although the weather this winter proved not as bad as they had feared, the roads are still getting damaged more quickly than the pothole gangs can fix them.
A cabinet report said: “The impact of climate change means wetter winters, hotter summers and seasonal extreme events are becoming more frequent and will, in the long term, only speed up this deterioration. The accelerated rate of deterioration means more roads are having to be treated at the reactive stage and therefore at a greater cost.
“This then means there is less funding available to provide preventative surface treatments at the earlier stages of decline. While the need for diversion of funds and closing of some rural lanes was not required, the long list of lanes whose condition is in much need of repair remains.
“These are currently being monitored and it’s likely that some road closures will be needed before the next winter. What is more concerning is the ability to address the remaining lanes with the funding available.”
The amount the council has for fixing potholes falls far short of the estimated £15 million which is needed. The longer roads are left to deteriorate, the more expensive they then become to repair. One small country lane cost more than £80,000 for preparation works to surface it, and there are around 80 other lanes within South Gloucestershire in a similar position.
By Alex Seabrook, Local Democracy Reporter