Almost 1,000 potholes reported to NE Lincs Council last year
£140,000 was spent repairing potholes in 2025
Last updated 30th Mar 2026
Almost a thousand potholes were reported to North East Lincolnshire Council in 2025 and almost £140,000 spent on repairing them. A freedom of information request by a member of the public has highlighted the number of pothole reports the council has received recently, the speed of the repairs regime, and the backlog of repairs needed to be carried out in recent weeks.
Potholes have become a hot topic in the borough, as in other parts of the country. Weather conditions have led to more strain on road surfaces this winter, but there have also been questions raised about the inspection and repair of reported defects raised in North East Lincolnshire.
The council has committed to a review of its highways policy, with a senior councillor stating this included looking at the trigger point for repairs. There were 114 potholes to be repaired as of mid-March, the FOI shows.
The council’s FOI response, publicly viewable on Whatdotheyknow.com, also details that last year, there were 956 potholes reported to the council. 814 were repaired that year and £137,316 spent on pothole repairs.
The yearly figures illustrates the extraordinary rise in reported potholes in recent months. While 956 pothole reports were made in the entirety of 2025, Cllr Stewart Swinburn (Conservative – Immingham Ward), portfolio holder for housing, infrastructure and transport, told the LDRS earlier this month the council received over 1,700 reports between December and February.
A council spokesperson has said repair times for potholes range from 24 hours to up to three working months, with severity and location influencing this. The average time between receipt of a reported defect and repair completion was 40 days. The median time for pothole repairs was 27 days.
The FOI requested the number of potholes outstanding at the end of the year. The council could not provide this, but instead gave a snapshot of the recent backlog, stating there were 114 outstanding repairs on March 13, 2026.
A council spokesperson explained: “A reference to more than 100 outstanding pothole repairs reflects the normal timeframes set out in our Highway Inspection Policy. Depending on the severity and location of a defect, repair times can range from 24 hours up to three working months.
“This means that a pothole reported towards the end of the year, for example in December, may not be scheduled for repair until as late as late March.”
“The FOI request asked for the number of potholes outstanding on 31 December 2025. We do not hold a historic snapshot for that date because our system updates continually.
“Once a pothole is repaired, the system is updated as part of our weekly process, so historic ‘as at’ figures are not retained.” The spokesperson added the number of outstanding pothole repairs changes daily, as new defects gets reported and existing ones repaired.
The definition of a pothole a road surface defect of 40mm or greater in depth,
and greater than 300mm in diameter. The latest Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance (ALARM) survey found councils face a 12-year wait to repair crumbling roads, despite a 17 per cent rise in maintenance budgets, according to Construction Motor magazine.
The ALARM survey estimates councils in England and Wales now face a record £18.62 billion backlog of carriageway repairs. At full council this week, potholes and the council’s repair regime were debated, with councillors passing a motion recommitting to a review of ways to increase the effectiveness and speed of its repairs.