ITV News goes on pothole road trip after it is revealed 24,000 miles of roads need repair
Video report by ITV News Consumer Editor Chris Choi
ITV News has gone on a pothole road trip after figures revealed 24,000 miles of roads need repair in England and Wales.
In order to repair all potholes it would cost the tax payer £9.3 billion and there is already a pothole deficit of £556 million.
ITV News Consumer Editor Chris Choi went on a cross country road trip from Hull to Blackpool to investigate the problem.
In Hull, Chris met a resident called Charles who said the damage to the road outside his house is so bad that he can hear when vehicles go past.
He said: “When lorries and buses come past and they hit that pothole, it actually shakes my house inside."
According to a new report, one in five local roads is in a poor condition as councils face a huge funding deficit to tackle potholes.
After Hull, Chris and the team stopped in Leeds, where City Councilor Russ Martin says road conditions are "not improving."
He said: "As fast as we can repair them, more are deteriorating, so we are just in a steady state."
Councils filled 1.5 million potholes in the past year, continuing the recent downward trend from a high of 2.7 million in 2015.
The team then visited Bolton, where Chris met Gina Lee, who had to pay over £1,000 to repair her car after it was damaged by a pothole.
She said: "It caused about £1,250 of damage to the car, we needed a new wheel and a new tyre."
The trip concluded in Blackpool, where Chris met a motorcyclist who lost his leg after an accident involving a pothole.
The motorcyclist, Darren Busby, said: "It's okay putting money into leisure and tourism, but it's the roads that matter.
"Someone's going to get injured soon, well they already have."
Since 2007, defective road surfaces have contributed to 22 cyclist deaths and 368 serious injuries.
AA president Edmund King said: "The danger faced by vulnerable road users and the threat of damage to cars never seems to recede."