As the cold weather starts to set in, more and more potholes may start to appear on roads – a dreaded issue for both drivers and local councils.
New research presented in a scrolling animation reveals just how deep the South West’s pothole problem goes, and it is far worse than it appears on the surface.
A freedom of information request by Confused.com, the driver saving site, reveals a total of 138,672 potholes were reported to the region’s councils in 2016.
Data shows that Swindon had 975 potholes, 40m deep, and £3,918.99 was spent in compensation.
Wiltshire had 6803 potholes, 272m deep and £900,000.00 spent on repairs, £507,546.31 spent in compensation.
If you need to report a pothole in Swindon, please do so on Swindon Borough Council’s website.
Each local authority was asked for the minimum depth of a road defect to be considered a pothole, and this figure was aggregated against the total number to reveal a depth of more than 5km (5,495m).
The animation allows users to visualise the true depth of the region’s potholes combined, scrolling passed iconic recorded depths such as the bottom of the English Channel (174m), the UK’s deepest cave in Powys (275m), and the Mediterranean Sea (5,270m).
Users can then scroll all the way passed the Mariana Trench (11km) and the world’s deepest man-made hole (12.3km) into the Earth’s upper mantle (30km) before arriving at the combined depth of the UK’s 1,033,486 potholes.
This is over 40 km deep and 3.7 times the depth of the deepest part of the Pacific Ocean.
Having this many potholes can be a very costly job for councils, as they fork out for repairs, as well as compensation to victims of damage caused by the craters in the road. In fact, a third (33%) of motorists in the UK say their car has been damaged by a pothole.
- In 2016, the region’s councils spent a whopping £8,717,831 repairing potholes.
- They also spent a combined sum of £608,273 to compensate drivers for damage to cars caused by potholes.
Top 5 counties within the South West with the biggest pothole problem, ranked by depth
| County | No. of potholes reported | Total depth | £ spent on repairs | £ spent on compensation |
| Devon | 62,244 | 2,481m | £3,812,158 | £36,520 |
| Cornwall | 28,771 | 1,151m | £289,548 | £24,407 |
| Gloucestershire | 20,829 | 833m | £513,706 | £7,721 |
| Wiltshire | 7,778 | 312m | £900,000 | £511,465 |
| Somerset | 7,217 | 289m | £992,942 | £23,043 |
Amanda Stretton, motoring editor at Confused.com, says, “Scrolling to depths of more than 40km really puts into perspective just how deep the UK’s pothole problem really is. They are a major bugbear among drivers, not least because of the damage they do to our vehicles – around £3.1 million worth of damage, which has been paid out by almost half of the UK’s councils.
“If drivers experience a bump in the road, they should report it to their local council as soon as possible before the problem gets any worse. The cost of motoring alone is getting more and more expensive and damage repairs is a big contributor to this, as car parts increase in price as well.
“For advice on pothole damage, and other ways to save on motoring costs, drivers can find more information at Confused.com.”
Unless otherwise stated, all figures taken from omnibus research carried out by One Poll on behalf of Confused.com. This was an online poll of 2,000 UK adults who drive (nationally representative sample). The research was conducted between 10th October and 13th October 2017.
- Confused.com submitted a Freedom of Information request to 412 local authorities, and the Highways Agency, Transport Scotland and Welsh Government. Of these, 197 local authorities responded as well as Highways England. The following questions were asked:
- The number of potholes reported within your local authority area in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 (to date), broken down by year.
- The minimum depth and width (in inches or cm) a reported pothole must be in order to be recorded as a pothole by your local authority.
- The number of potholes repaired within your local authority area in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 (to date), broken down by year.
- The amount of money the local authority has spent on repairing potholes within your local authority area in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 (to date), broken down by year.
- The amount of money the local authority has spent in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 (to date), broken down by year, on paying compensation to claimants where vehicle damage was caused by potholes/damaged road surfaces.
- The total pothole depth was taken as the number of potholes multiplied by the minimum pothole depth for that local authority. Where a local authority did not specify a minimum depth, a UK-wide median depth of 40mm was used.
