POTHOLES have almost tripled on Warwickshire’s roads this winter amid a major backlog of permanent repairs.
Prolonged wet weather has seen 4,962 pothole fix requests submitted to Warwickshire County Council across the first two months of this year – nearly three times the 1,678 raised across the same period in 2025.
Director of highways Richard Fenwick described “a difficult few months” with more than 30 gangs working seven days a week for most of the period since Christmas to try to play catch-up.
He said the complaints received from road users were “justified” but WCC was having to fall back on crude short-term pothole fixes as a necessary evil.
Speaking to the communities overview and scrutiny committee he explained that for the sake of speed and hazard mitigation more than half of current repairs involve little more than a dollop of tarmac for the time being, acknowledging that some break away within a matter of days.
But while he knows that is far from ideal, the realities of staying on top of the problem make for a “tough choice”.
He said: “Doing it right first time is best for value for money and means fewer revisits but the permanent saw-cut fixes take significantly longer to do.
“We have to choose between getting there in time to try to save people’s wheels from being broken or worse, even though we know we might have to go back, or leaving the hole there for longer with those gangs (doing the spot fixes) taking at least twice as long to do permanent repairs.”
The county has a backlog of 1,624 permanent repairs, including revisits to those quick fixes, but Mr Fenwick is hopeful that will come down as weather improves.
The temporary fix sees hot tarmac stuck in the hole as it is, while a permanent patch involves cutting into the road and removing debris under the right conditions before filling it and pressing into the road surface.
The council aims to keep temporary fixes to between 10 and 20 per cent of overall jobs with Mr Fenwick noting that the current rate of 56 per cent was “not where we want to be”.
