Pothole reports in Plymouth triple

The weather has played havoc

Plymouth has seen a 340 per cent increase in reported potholes in the last six weeks compared with the same period last year due to the weather.

The city council heard at their budget meeting this week that highways teams were under a lot of pressure to fill potholes and repairs had increased by a similar percentage.

One and a half million pounds of extra cash has been put into the 2026/27 Plymouth City Council budget for highways and transport maintenance which includes repairing potholes – this takes the amount to £14.4 million. In 2027/28 there will be 16.6 million.

Fewer potholes and cleaner, greener streets and transport was voted second in the list of priorities for people who took part in a consultation proper to the budget setting process. First was working with the NHS to provide better access to health, care and dentistry.

Cabinet member for strategic planning and transport Cllr John Stephens (Lab, Plymstock Dunstone) said 15,000 potholes had been fixed in five years but from now on they could “fill more and fill them better” as the highways team had a four funding year plan to address the backlog of interventions.

Some £55 million was being invested by the city council over that time for street lighting, traffic signalling, safety schemes, road maintenance and carriageway drainage, he said.

“The plan will ensure a prevention rather than cure approach and a wider window of opportunity for further adoption of innovations and improved highway resilience as extreme weather events are becoming the norm.”

Among the innovations will be two new repair and preservation trials for potholes. Cabinet member for finance Cllr Mark Lowry (Lab, Southway) said £100,000 of the budget would be spent on a three month trial starting in April which involved a machine using recycled tiles and resin to repair potholes. If the feedback was positive £300,000 more would be allocated to continue the scheme until the end of the year.

The council was also looking at new technology which had been tried in Bristol to apply a type of asphalt spray over the road surface to prolong its life by three years.