Road repairs: Wigan Council spending seven-figure sum repairing potholes

It came after a report from the The Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA) said town halls were expected to fix two million potholes in the current financial year, with roads described as being at "breaking point" due to disintegrating surfaces. Repairs nationally are at an eight-year high.

And after an eight-month period when it has seemed to rain in Wigan on far more days than it hasn't, there’s little surprise that some of the most-used thoroughfares are cratered.

Some, however, are not the local authority’s responsibility, although there is confusion over one particularly troublesome street.

But when members of the public flag up bad roads to the council via its website, Coun Paul Prescott, cabinet portfolio holder for planning, environmental services and transport, says that expert teams quickly act on them.

Such was the case in the last month when large potholes close to Marsh Green Primary School were brought to the local authority’s attention. The stretch has now been mended.

Coun Prescott said: “We spend just short of £1m on identifying and repairing potholes, with over 98 per cent of emergency repairs completed on time.

“Our roads are ranked as some of the best both regionally and nationally as a result of our planned maintenance program where we invest around £5m a year.

“By prioritising the available funding into planned surfacing and preventative maintenance, we are able to prevent and reduce the number of defects on our highways.

“This time of year is always challenging, with our roads suffering from damage caused by freezing temperatures, grit and rain over the winter months and our teams are working hard to catch up.

“We would encourage residents to notify us about any concerns they have by visiting wigan.gov.uk/ReportIt.”

Some of the worst local offenders, however, fall outside council jurisdiction.

Take, for instance, Quaker’s Place at Standish, a section of which is unadopted and has some very deep potholes. Councillors and residents have been campaigning for years for these to be filled in, not only because they can cause vehicle damage but also because motorists are then inclined to mount kerbs to avoid them and so endanger pedestrians. The road is well used by Wood Fold Primary school run parents.

But there remains confusion as to who owns the land in question. Residents say that they thought it was the “Electricity Board”.

A spokesperson for Electricity North West told Wigan Today confirmed it had owned the land around the substation but it was transferred to Wigan Council in the 1970s!

However council environment director Paul Barton said: “We recognise that situations like this can be frustrating for our residents, but it is important that the correct processes are followed in instances such as this one.

“Only the first section of Quakers’ Place, Standish (from School Lane) is part of Wigan Council’s adopted highway, and this section of highway is managed and maintained by the council.

“The further section of Quakers’ Place, connecting into Greenland Avenue, is unadopted and we hold no records to show that this section of road has ever been dedicated as being a public highway.

“We will continue to work with our partners and the relevant landowners in relation to this matter.”

Meanwhile a section of the junction 27 roundabout, also at Standish, has also become severely potholed again, although this is the responsibility of Lancashire County Council, not Wigan.

The AIA's annual report found that 47 per cent of local road miles were rated as being in a good condition, with 36 per cent adequate and 17 per cent poor.

The survey also found that average highway maintenance budgets increased by 2.3 per cent in the 2023-24 financial year compared with the previous 12 months.

But the impact of rising costs due to inflation meant local authorities "effectively experienced a real-terms cut".

Meanwhile, the cost of fixing the backlog of local road repairs has reached a record £16.3bn, up 16 per cent from £14bn a year ago.