Council launch ‘drive’ to push pothole information

With potholes being one of the most complained about things in Blackburn with Darwen, the council is launching a new campaign, and asking residents for their help.

Currently, the council only receives enough funding to re-surface the equivalent of just 1.2% or just 6km of roads each year. This means that it would take at least 85 years to re-surface all roads, when the average road only lasts around 20 years.

When it comes to potholes, last year, our highway inspectors were called out to inspect almost 500 ‘potholes’ that didn’t meet the minimum criteria, meaning they couldn’t be repaired.

The new campaign hopes to educate residents on what constitutes a pothole and explain more about the lack of funding available.

Councillor Quesir Mahmood, Executive Member for Growth and Development said:

We’re just as frustrated as our residents with the state of some of our roads.

Sadly, under the previous government, we’ve seen our road maintenance budgets slashed to the bare minimum – this is the case right across the country, not just Blackburn with Darwen.

As ward councillors we are inundated with complaints about potholes and the council’s highways team are too. We do want to help, but it’s incredibly difficult with the funds available.

Throughout the campaign, we want to highlight the position we’re in and ask residents for their help in identifying the depths of possible potholes before they report them.

We had officers inspect almost 500 last year that sadly didn’t meet the criteria to be repaired – that’s a lot of time and money that could be better re-focused with the issues we are facing.

The council carries out its own checks of busy town centre footways every month with major roads being reviewed every three months. All roads in the borough are checked at least once a year.

Any potholes found are repaired individually until the road can be resurfaced.

When residents report a pothole to us, our highways team will usually inspect it within 10 working days.

If the pothole is over 150mm deep, it will be classed as an emergency and made safe by the next working day. Often, it will be repaired within two hours of the inspection.

Last year, more than 6,700 potholes were repaired in Blackburn with Darwen.

Councillor Mahmood added:

As part of the new campaign, we’re trying to make it easier for residents to know what is and isn’t a pothole as we rely on them to be vigilant and report issues – helping keep our roads and footways safe.

On footways, a pothole needs to be 25mm deep, which is the same as a two pence coin. On a road, a pothole needs to be the same depth as a golf ball, 40mm, to be repaired.

Our teams work hard and are doing all they can. We will continue to lobby government to highlight the issues and do everything we can to secure additional funding.

Potholes are caused by the weather, including the impact of climate change, and increased traffic. This means that the borough’s roads are deteriorating at a faster rate than ever before.

When it comes to resurfacing our roads, the highways team uses an asset management plan which looks at the lifecycle of each road and the available funding. With limited budgets, the team prioritise roads that need resurfacing to ensure that they are all safe for its users.

To hear more about the challenges the team face when it comes to repairing your roads, please watch this film.

To find out more about potholes and to report an issue you’ve spotted, visit our website.