SWINDON is one of the fastest councils in Britain to fill severe potholes.
While some local authorities take up to three days, according to new research, Swindon Borough Council fixes them in an hours
The analysis by motoring research charity the RAC Foundation found that Cumbria, Flintshire and South Lanarkshire try to act "immediately" to repair road defects which pose the greatest safety risk to drivers and riders.
The most common response time is two hours, with 79 local authorities looking to patch up their roads within this period.
Coventry City Council has the longest target time for severe pothole repairs, aiming to respond within five days.
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RAC Foundation director Steve Gooding said: "It is understandable that large rural authorities set themselves longer response times, simply as a result of having to travel further to effect repairs, but motorists might still be surprised to see such a wide variation across the country.
"Those particularly vulnerable to potholes - cyclists and motorcyclists - might ask whether the speed of pothole investigation should be based solely on the risk to users."
A Swindon Borough Council spokesman said: “Keeping everyone who uses our roads safe is a top priority for us, which is why we try to fill severe potholes as quickly as we can. The fact our response times compare favourably with other councils is thanks to the efforts of our hard-working highways maintenance staff whose dedication is second to none.
“We don’t pretend that our roads are perfect, but we do our absolute best to make sure they are as safe as possible and we do respond when potholes are reported to us.
“We fixed more than 6,000 potholes last year, five times more than the number that were reported to us. In fact reporting potholes to us has never been easier thanks to our new online system which comes with a special tool that allows people to plot the pothole on an interactive map, making the whole process easier and quicker.
“Anyone who spots a pothole can log it on our website at: www.swindon.gov.uk/potholes.”
Who topped the pothole-fixing list?
These are the councils with the quickest target response times for serious potholes:
Immediately: Flintshire, Cumbria and South Lanarkshire
30 minutes: Harrow
One hour: Slough, Walsall, Sheffield, Rochdale, Bracknell Forest, Hartlepool, Warwickshire, Swindon, Worcestershire, Derby, Ealing, Bexley, Birmingham, Stoke on Trent, Wirral and Isle of Anglesey.
- These are the councils with the slowest response times to serious potholes:
Five days: Coventry
72 hours: Leicestershire
48 hours: Cornwall and Isles of Scilly
36 hours: Bournemouth
Further analysis by the RAC Foundation found that local highway authorities are increasingly adopting a risk-based approach to fixing road defects.
This means the volume of traffic and mix of road users is taken into account when deciding how quickly to act, as well as the size of a pothole.
Almost all authorities set minimum sizes for potholes before they will take action.
These vary from between 20-30mm deep at 37 councils to at least 50mm at 26 others.
One in five local roads in England and Wales is in a poor condition, and the frequency of road resurfacing has declined, a report by the Asphalt Industry Alliance warned.
Damaged shock absorbers, broken suspension springs and distorted wheels are among the most common vehicle problems caused by potholes.
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