New research from Citroen has revealed that as many as 32 per cent of UK motorists have had their car damaged by potholes, with the average repair bill costing £141.95, and 11 per cent of drivers having to fork out over £251 for a pothole-related repair.

This is Money reports that Citroen surveyed 2,000 drivers, with almost a quarter of respondents stating that they had tried to claim back the repair cost of the pothole damage from their local council.

Pothole-related repairs cost local authorities a total of almost £6 million in compensation in 2019/20, latest data from The Asphalt Industry Alliance ALARM report shows.

According to the report from ALARM, a pothole is repaired every 21 seconds in England and Wales, but with local authorities facing a carriageway maintenance budget shortfall of around £826.6 million a year, 9 per cent of the UK’s road network is considered to be in poor condition and will need maintenance within the next 12 months.

Eurig Druce, Managing Director of Citroen UK, said: “It is concerning to find that potholes have caused damage to nearly a third of drivers’ cars across England and Wales. Local authorities have a lot of issues to solve and this will take time.”

The study also revealed that 42 per cent of drivers wish their car had better suspension to cope with the condition of the country’s roads.

In January, the RAC revealed it had attended almost 1,500 pothole-related breakdowns in the fourth quarter of 2020, which raised concerns as the figures were recorded during the lockdown and travel restrictions and they were similar to the numbers recorded during the same lockdown-free period in 2019.

RAC head of road policy Nicholas Lyes called on the government to put aside 2p from the existing 58p-per-litre duty on the sale of petrol and diesel, which he said: “would generate nearly £5bn of additional funds for local roads over five years”.

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