R&R Life News

Council brands potholes survey "pure nonsense"

3:04pm Monday 15th March 2010

A survey which said Surrey has the most potholes in the UK has been rubbished by the county council.

The council tore into the Kia Motors UK Pothole Survey as “pure nonsense.”

The survey, published last week, said that its research found Surrey had by far and away the most potholes in the UK at some 1,998.

The survey stated Surrey's potholes total was more than double the number of the second-worst hit county in Britain, Hampshire, where it recorded 892 potholes - 1, 106 less than in Surrey.

West Sussex, Lancashire, Oxfordshire, Kent and Essex were also named in the top ten list of pothole hotspots around Britain.

The survey's findings came after the UK experienced its coldest winter weather in 30 years – the snow and ice playing havoc with road surfaces.

The research estimated that the average damage to a vehicle caused by potholes was £750, with suspension failures, split tyres and damaged alloys named as common incidents.

But this week, the county council tore into the Kia Motors UK findings.

A county council spokesman said: "The results of this survey are so inaccurate they are absurd.

“Kia claims Surrey only has 1,998 potholes and other counties in Britain have even less - this is pure nonsense.

“If these figures were anywhere near accurate, British taxpayers would be saved millions of pounds.”

The spokesman added: “In Surrey, we have fixed around 15,000 road defects including potholes since the recent bad winter weather alone.

“This survey seems to be a calculated attempt to garner free publicity by exploiting a serious issue which is blighting the lives of motorists and costing councils across Britain millions of pounds to deal with.

“What we really need is serious, long-term investment in our highways from the Government to help develop a world-class road network, so we don't have to keep patching it up each year.

“I would suggest Kia contact us for the facts before their next publicity stunt."

The spokesman added Surrey has 3,000 miles of roads and lots of heavy traffic, could not be compared properly with other areas, and that it is very difficult for local authorities to know at any stage how many potholes they have as they rise and fall with bad weather and repair schedules.

“We fix them up as quickly as we can but it's very hard to have a precise figure.

“We've repaired something like 15,000 to 20,000 around the county and there's still more out there,” she said.

But Sue Mulcaster of Kia Motors UK said they stood by their survey.

Calling it a “snapshot,” she said: “We contacted our dealers and asked them if they had seen an increase in damage and repairs as a result of potholes across the country, and it was purely based on anecdotal evidence based on that.”

Ms Mulcaster said: “As someone who lives and works in Surrey, I am quite pleased that it has evoked a reaction from the county council.

“We never claimed our figures were going to match exactly what the council had, and if the council are happy to admit there are more than our survey showed, all well and good.

“The roads in this particular area are bad and need to be looked at.”

She added: “We understand that the council have the correct figures for the county. We are not doubting those.”

Citing their survey, she said: “We don't claim to pretend it's representative of the whole area. We've only looked at Kia customers and dealers.”

And she added: “If the council would like to work with us, we would be more than happy.”

Paul Watters, head of roads policy at the AA, echoed Surrey County Council, saying the Kia survey was biased towards the south, pothole numbers are hard to come by and local authorities' figures were really the most accurate.

But he did add that Surrey's south-western and north-western borders were probably amongst the areas in the UK worst-hit by the winter blast and affected by potholes.

He also echoed the county council's call for more money from central Government to cover the cost of pothole repairs, and to head off or limit any potential impact on future council tax rates.

Surrey County Council recently announced it was to put an extra half a million pounds into pothole repairs as a matter of urgency.

The council has more than 25 repair teams carrying out the work, with urgent repairs being dealt with first, and then A roads, before teams work through other roads.

Leader of the council Dr Andrew Povey said they were aiming to fix at least 200 potholes a day until the job was completed.

He said the £500,000 for the work would come on top of the annual budget for pothole repairs. During severe winter weather, roads become brittle because of the cold and cracks can develop which, if water gets in, freezes and expands, are made bigger.

Deterioration can then be very quick and repeated freezing and thawing over a prolonged period makes the potholes worse.

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