Swindon has some of the worst roads for potholes in the south west, a new report has revealed.

The data shows more than 15,000 potholes reported in Swindon since 2015 - the equivalent of 17 potholes every kilometre in the town.

Compared to Wiltshire, with five potholes for every kilometre and west Berkshire at four, Swindon has some of the worst roads in the area. Oxfordshire's roads were revealed to be slightly worse at 19.

Neville Daytona, who last year made headlines when he put a dolls head in a pothole on Mill Lane to highlight the long delay in repairs, said he is not surprised by the findings.

"I think the roads are getting worse to be honest, the cold weather is here now and that’s definitely not going to help,” he said.

Elaine Sutton who has been driving for over 30 years said the roads in the area are not that good: “They’re always out repairing the roads but the repairs never last. It’s the bad weather that causes the potholes, but they need to get better at actually fixing them”

Authorities were asked: "How many individual potholes (if known) or reports of potholes have you had reported by members of the public or highways officers, broken down by month, for the following years: 2015 – 2018 to date?"

A Swindon Borough Council spokesman said: “As a Council, we are extremely proactive in identifying and fixing potholes. We recognise the problems they cause for drivers, and our highways team works very hard all year round to repair any damage to the town’s road and pavement network.

“Last year, we fixed more than 6,000 potholes and received 901 reports from members of the public. We took steps to inform the public of our work to fix potholes by launching a campaign that offered advice and important information to road users.

“We have also taken steps to make reporting potholes much easier. In response to feedback from residents, our online reporting system comes with a special tool that allows people to plot the pothole on an interactive map, making the whole process easier and quicker. To tell us about a pothole, log on to www.swindon.gov.uk/potholes.”

UK pothole expert, Prof. Nicholas Thom said local councils needed to think about changing their road maintenance strategies: “

The number of potholes per kilometre on a given authority’s roads depends not only on the budget, strategy, and the climate -frosts are bad news- but also on a historical policy choice, namely what surfacing materials to use. It is a choice that badly needs to be reviewed.”

The Insurance Emporium obtained the data using a Freedom of Information request. A total of 175 local authorities responded and it found that more than a million potholes were reported in 2017 alone.